2009 Photographers

Connie Bransilver | www.conniebransilver.com
Connie Bransilver is an internationally renowned nature photographer, artist, author and speaker, who has photographed on all seven continents. She brings images and inspirational prose to audiences seeking clarity, passion and purpose. “Wild Love Affair: Essence of Florida’s Native Orchids” and “Florida’s Unsung Wilderness: The Swamps,” offer personal and spiritual explorations of wilderness along with scientific analysis. Connie is published widely in local, national and international books and magazines and coproduced a “Wild Chronicles” television segment with National Geographic. She is a fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers.

Clyde Butcher | www.clydebutcher.com
Clyde Butcher’s black and white photographs explore his personal relationship with the environment. The beauty and depth of Clyde’s work draw the viewer into a relationship with nature. For more than 40 years, he has helped to preserve the landscape. Clyde captures his images with a large format view camera allowing him to express the elaborate detail and textures that distinguish the intricacy of the landscape. Recent projects include work for Florida’s “Save Our Rivers” program, the South Florida Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Divisions of State Lands, the Bureau of Submerged Lands and Preserves, and Everglades National Park.

Will Dickey | www.willdickey.com
Will Dickey has been a Jacksonville resident since he became a staff photographer for The Florida Times-Union in 1983. News events, environmental portraits, sports, business, digital illustrations and features are among his daily assignments for the newspaper. Will has won regional and national awards for his newspaper work. But he has a special respect for nature and for the beauty of the northeast Florida landscape, especially the Timucuan Preserve and the St. Johns River. For the past several years, Will’s images of the First Coast landscape have been displayed in local art galleries and he is now exhibiting at area outdoor art festivals.

John Moran | www.johnmoranphoto.com
John Moran is Florida’s unofficial photographer laureate. He was the state nature photographer in 2006, creating a calendar of state lands for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Governor’s office. His bylines include National Geographic, Life, Time, Newsweek, Smithsonian and the cover of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida. Moran seeks his photographic vision of natural Florida as it must have appeared to Ponce de Leon and other early strangers in paradise. His work highlights a 20-year odyssey to photograph the alligators, beaches, birds, rivers, trees, turtles and flowers that make Florida the amazing place we call home.

Jeff Ripple | www.jeffripple.com
Jeff Ripple is a fine art landscape photographer and natural history author who grew up in South Florida. He has devoted nearly half his life to exploring and documenting the natural wonders of Florida and the South. Jeff’s primary camera is a 4x5 field camera, allowing him to capture the subtleties of the landscape with amazing clarity. He works in both color and black–and–white. Jeff has participated in more than a dozen museum exhibits and his work can be found in collections worldwide. He hopes that through his photography and writing people will develop a new appreciation for their natural heritage.

James Shadle | www.wildflorida.net
James Shadle is an award-winning photographer and trained naturalist. Numerous publications have featured James’ photographs including National Geographic Adventure, Outdoor Photographer, Audubon, National Wildlife, Popular Photography, Shutterbug and Vision. James grew up in rural Hillsborough County, playing in the woods and fields where homes and businesses now stand. He still lives only a couple of miles from where he was raised. James has always loved being out in the wild. His father was a hunter and fisherman. James also loves to stalk wildlife but hunts only with a digital camera. As a father and husband, he encourages exploring wild Florida as a family.

Wes Skiles | www.wesskiles.com
Wes Skiles has been actively exploring, mapping and filming the underwater caves of the world for more than 30 years. He is best known for his camera work in both still photography and motion pictures. As a native Floridian, Wes was one of the first humans to explore, map, and document many of North Florida’s most treasured springs. Over his lifetime he has explored more than 400,000 feet of previously unexplored passages within the Floridan Aquifer. These unique experiences exploring our drinking water combined with a deep love for his native state, have driven him to be one of the most vocal advocates in preserving and protecting Florida’s precious water resources.

Mac Stone | www.macstonephoto.com
Mac Stone resides in Gainesville. However, for the last two and a half years he has lived in both Honduras and Wyoming as a photography and environmental instructor for children. He uses his camera to expose the raw beauty and intrinsic value that our natural world possesses, raising awareness of the importance of habitat restoration and land conservation. Mac has independently published two books — one on the recently protected Kanapaha Prairie and another covering the diversity of the Honduran landscape. Currently he is working on two additional conservation photography books to be published in 2009.

Jim Turner
Jim Turner is a shareholder in the Williams Parker law firm in Sarasota, concentrating his law practice in commercial real estate, land use and environment. Jim is also a fourth generation Floridian whose extended family has owned the Hi Hat Ranch, a cattle and citrus operation in Sarasota County for more than 60 years. Hi Hat has won the Environmental Stewardship Award granted by the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and has received recognition from several other conservation organizations. Jim is active in the community, having served in leadership positions on multiple civic and charitable boards. He is also a recognized outdoorsman, with a particular passion for hunting, fishing, and photography.

James Valentine | www.quest-foundation.org
Jim Valentine’s camera, “a carrier of the light,” is used to create archival photographic art that reflects the creations of nature and culture. He has devoted his life work for the stewardship of wilderness, wildlife and the understanding of sustainable living. As president of Quest Foundation, Inc., Valentine pioneered the concept of environmental art photography in 1969 — images that work for the conservation of our wilderness and cultural heritage. His photographic work has been used to help conserve millions of acres of wild places in the Americas and to bring attention to the preservation of many important cultural sites.

Carlton Ward Jr. | www.carltonward.com
Carlton Ward Jr. is an eighth-generation Florida native. An ecologist by training, Carlton aims to promote conservation of natural environments and cultural legacies through his photographs. His first book, The “Edge of Africa,” received international acclaim and he regularly produces stories for Smithsonian, National Wildlife, Africa Geographic, and Outdoor Photographer. Carlton was featured in the June 2007 issue of Popular Photography as one of three photographers working to save vanishing America. He is currently focused on Florida conservation issues and has begun several long-term projects celebrating the state’s vanishing natural heritage. In 2004, he founded LINC to promote Florida conservation through photography.

Eric Zamora | www.ericzamora.com
Eric Zamora splits his time as a photographer between the Florida Museum of Natural History and enterprise projects that focus on the environment in places ranging across North America. In Florida, Eric produces visual content of the Big Bend coastline and the Santa Fe River to promote sustainable development. Backgrounds in wilderness travel and photojournalism have allowed him to capture a holistic vision of conservation issues that includes not just the landscape, but also the people and wildlife that live there. To inspire youth, Eric presents his photography and conducts workshops at local high schools and Florida 4-H groups.