FORT MYERS, Fla.- Clyde Butcher is opening a new exhibit at the Southwest Florida History Museum in Fort Myers. The display of his art work begins with a talk from Butcher on Thursday evening, Feb. 2.  

"I am really excited to share with people how a picture comes together," Butcher told WINK News in an interview at his gallery and dark room in Venice. Butcher has become very well-known for his haunting pictures of the Everglades, and other parts of Florida.

Butcher is renowned as the finest nature photographer, the Ansel Adams, of our times. 

"I don't consider myself famous at all. I put on my pants one leg at a time. I just do what I do and hope that I help the earth, the environment," he said.

Butcher has worked in black and white since the death of his son, killed by a drunk driver, in 1986.  

"My artist friends thought I was wacko," he recalls. "Why would anybody want to see a black and white picture of a swamp?  But I like black and white because it is interpretation. Color is duplication of nature."

Butcher remains very busy at age 69. He will lead people on a swamp walk in a couple of weeks, and he just returned to this area after photographing nature scenes in the Western U.S.