Naples Sun Times Posted on May 5, 2004

Bransilver's Photography is wild beautiful and rare

By Reina Newton Tefs

International photographer, naturalist, conservationist and speaker Connie Bransilver poses with her latest book "Wild Love Affair: Essence of Florida's Native Orchids," now available in bookstores.
Telephoto lens and camera balanced precariously in hands stretched above her head, cool swamp water seeps under her clothes and rises toward her chin.

Hopefully, alligators and snakes are visiting another part of the swamp. A "No Trespassing" sign stands on the bank unheeded. Although this venture comes with no guarantees, Connie Bransilver presses on because a wild orchid waits for no camera. Some blooms last only a few hours.

Bransilver, who is a local and international photographer, naturalist, conservationist and lecturer, doesn't use a Photoshop program to crop or remove flaws from her photographs. Her style of taking pictures is very "What you see is what you get."

Standing in a jungle teeming with flying, crawling, biting insects that make themselves at home in ears, nose and exposed skin would annoy many adventurers, but Bransilver focuses on her prey so intensely that she ignores these distractions. In 1999, she was selected as the African Wildlife Foundation's Photographer of the Year.

Her feet froze on a slice of iceberg in Antarctica as sub-zero winds blew her exhaled icicles to smithereens while she eyed chinstrap penguins and mentally encouraged them to do their thing. This photograph won The Explorers Club Grand Prize in 1997.

In Madagascar with two researchers, she spotted a lemur which later was determined to be a new species named Sifaka lemur. The team was given a National Geographic Grant to continue research.

When I stepped into Bransilver's foyer, I was surprised to see a lemur perched on her windowsill. It was Letitia, who turned out to be a paper-machè lemur sculpture. Orchids strike alluring poses in photographs and adorn her walls. Gorilla hands folded in contemplation join a menagerie of wildlife stills.

Bransilver said it's easier to take a compelling picture of wildlife. While in the bush, her life was literally in native hands, but she does not refer to them as primitive. She was impressed by how fast they caught on to operating a computer or Global Positioning System. To Bransilver, the difficult part about photographing flowers is trying to make them look different and appealing.

In her second and just-published book Wild Love Affair: Essence of Florida's Wild Orchids, Bransilver not only captures a "different" look of orchids, but she preserves what may become only memories of our area's wild and rare orchids through her fine-art photographs. Many of these flowers are difficult to find.
People would call or e-mail her when they spotted an orchid. Because the blooms are ephemeral, Bransilver had to stop what she was doing and run to capture their essence on a moment's notice. She said that it took her one year to put the book together but over seven years to collect photographs.

In 1992, Bransilver left her international law and banking professions to pursue photography full time. On the board of Native Orchid Restoration Project, Bransilver is also active in the Jane Goodall Institute and Duke University Primate Center. Her local and international conservation efforts continue to help our planet.

Bransilver's lens focuses on the "spirit and soul" of Florida's wild orchids.

Bransilver will present a multi-media digital slide show with music, poetry, and discussion at the Naples Orchid Society's meeting at the Conservancy Auditorium on May 6 at 7 p.m. Call 455-5138 for information. To see Bransilver's photographs and find information on her books and prints visit www.conniebransilver.com. Her books are also available at many bookstores.
You can find native orchids at Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. November is the best month for seeing the greatest number of orchids in flower in a single day.


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