Kjell Sandved | Nature photograper, 93

Kjell Sandved, 93, a Norwegian publisher who found a second career as a nature photographer for the Smithsonian Institution, capturing closely observed images of butterflies, plants, and other forms of life, died Dec. 20 at his home in Washington. He had dementia, said Barbara Badian, a friend and business associate.

Mr. Sandved was a man of singular vision who never did things by half-measure. After compiling and publishing two single-volume encyclopedias on music and art - each more than 1,000 pages long - he set about compiling another encyclopedia devoted to the natural world.

He was at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in 1960, looking through a cigar box containing a collection of butterflies, when he noticed the letter "F" in the wing of one specimen. He took a photograph, put it above his desk and soon became consumed with curiosity.

And so began a decades-long search, as he wondered what else he might see in the wing patterns of the nearly 20,000 species of butterflies across the globe.

Abandoning plans for a comprehensive encyclopedia on nature, Mr. Sandved stayed in Washington as a volunteer at the museum. He redirected his career toward nature photography, teaching himself the craft by trial and error.

About four years later, he became the Museum of Natural History's first full-time nature photographer. For nearly three decades, he traveled the world for the museum. In 1975, Mr. Sandved produced his first "Butterfly Alphabet" poster, with all 26 letters - and the numbers 1 through 9 - represented in the varied hues of butterfly wings. Over the years, more than a million copies were sold. - Washington Post