For over 20 years, Butch Lombardi has been honing his craft behind the lens of a camera.

If you’ve seen Lombardi’s work on Facebook or in-person at various craft fairs and art shows where he sells his prints, you will see for yourself that he has something special — an eye for scoping out artistic potential in everyday scenes and environments that become visually astounding when combined with his technical camera skills and digital editing instincts.

“You can shoot the same thing over and over again, but it will always be different somehow,” Lombardi, a lifelong Warren resident, said during a recent interview. “You basically have to walk around and ‘see.’ There’s a lot of people who walk around but don’t really ‘see.’”

What makes Lombardi’s photographic prowess more impressive is that he has never taken a photography class in his life — he openly admits to not learning about the “rule of thirds” until just a couple years ago.

Photography became a passion for Lombardi after his retirement at age 51, starting in earnest with a vintage accordion film camera he purchased in 1998, before transitioning into his first 35 millimeter camera in 2000. Since the digital era took off, he has been venturing out into the local area to shoot anything and everything that catches his eye.

“My daily stuff is all from around here, but I’ve never had a day where I think I have nothing to shoot,” he said.

A little piece of Warren, no matter where you are
This September will mark the ninth consecutive year that Lombardi will put out a calendar that features his work, with shots that evoke emotions and memories of each month of the year.

The venture started when Lombardi agreed to share his work for the Warren Town Planner, a community calendar that features local advertising. Although he agreed to do the work for exposure rather than money, he got enough comments from people who assumed the calendar was all his doing that he thought there might be enough interest to actually produce a calendar that truly was his own.

In 2014, he shared on his Facebook that he was considering doing a calendar, and had about 75 people commit to buying one when he did. But due to time constraints, he planned on 2015 being the inaugural year. Working with Craig Bradley of Alpha Graphics, Lombardi ordered 100 prints of the calendar. When 135 orders came in, he upped that order to 250.

“My wife, Cyndy, said, ‘Are you sure you want to do that many?’”, Lombardi recalled. He started selling them on Sept. 15, and by Halloween, he was sold out. He ordered 100 more, which sold out by Christmas.

“The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. But one comment I got from a lady, living in Iowa since moving away from Warren in the 1960s, said it all,” Lombardi wrote in an email.

“Butch, I just got the calendar. As I began to look through the months, I began to cry. Thanks for this little piece of home.”

Lombardi said that he has consistently sold around 450 each year the calendar has printed. He has sold to most states in the country, and countries as far away as Iraq, Indonesia, and Thailand — at least one from every continent except for Antarctica. It’s not earning him a vacation home in Nantucket, but the revenue at least covers the cost of production.

But talk with Butch just once and you’ll realize that, like any true artist, the money is not the inspiration.

“It’s been a lot of fun and it’s been very gratifying in the sense that people make a connection to it,” he said.

Since originally focusing on only Warren, Lombardi has expanded scenes in the calendar to include Bristol, the rest of Bristol County, and has even reached into Bristol County, Mass. for a few shots.

When the calendars for 2023 go on sale in a couple weeks, you can find them at Delekta’s on Main Street. Or simply contact Butch on Facebook or through email at butchlombardi@verizon.net. You can purchase or view more of his work at butch-lombardi.pixels.com.