Selby Botanical Gardens

A close-up of white butterfly pollinating a purple flower. Shot from below, a diver above a wreck with a huge school of fish following his travels. A burrowing owl looking straight at the camera.Those are three recent winners in the amateur divisions of several of Southwest Florida’s summertime environmental photography contests. Some offer cash prizes, other give away new camera equipment, but most clearly feel that bragging rights rule because that's what the winners receive.There are often thousands of entries even in the smaller-sized wildland and wildlife photography contests. Several of those are in full swing now and ready for nature lovers to join.

We explore an exhibition currently running at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens titled, "We Dream A World: African American Landscape Painters of Mid-Century Florida, The Highwaymen," with the exhibit's curator Radiah Lovette Harper.