Photo Essay

PHOTO ESSAY: A walk through a maritime forest

PHOTO ESSAY: A walk through a maritime forest

Staff reports  |  With a flash point of the May 4 election on Sullivan’s Island being the future of a maritime forest, here’s a look at nature’s diversity that can be found, day in, day out.  (More: 4/19: Maritime forest looms large over Sullivan’s Island election.)

“People think of the maritime forest as being just the tall trees, but maritime forests are successional, starting with sea oats and flowers and then shrub thickets, filled with myrtles, which lay down soil and protect tree saplings,” said Karen Byko, a resident fighting to protect the forest.  “The last part of the forest to evolve are stands of tall trees. Throughout, the Sullivan’s Island Maritime Forest is filled with wetlands.”

Enjoy these photos by Byko and her husband, Realtor Rob Byko, who serves as our contributing photographer.

by · 04/26/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, Photo Essay, Photos
FOCUS: Brookgreen Gardens offers a magnificent day trip

FOCUS: Brookgreen Gardens offers a magnificent day trip

Staff reports  |  There couldn’t have been much more of a perfect day than a Sunday day trip to Brookgreen Gardens in Georgetown County.  The temperature was mild.  Humidity wasn’t anywhere around.  And the sun shined a penetrating light on scores of statuaries and thousands of flowers that filled the attraction.

Brookgreen Gardens, known as one of the world’s finest outdoor museums of American figurative sculpture, has a stunning collection of more than 2,700 works by 425 artists.

Take a look at some photos below from the Easter visit.  Brookgreen Gardens is about an hour and a half from downtown Charleston.  The ticket price is affordable — $18 per adult — and good for seven days.  

by · 04/05/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, Photo Essay
PHOTO ESSAY: Botany Bay is a Lowcountry treasure

PHOTO ESSAY: Botany Bay is a Lowcountry treasure

By English Purcell, special to Charleston Currents  |  Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area is a Lowcountry treasure, and its “boneyard beach” is one of my favorite places to photograph.

Opened to the public in 2008, the 3,363-acre Botany Bay tract (map)is a significant wildlife habitat with several equally significant historic assets. 

The Wildlife Management Area is also an active archaeological site where the remains of two prehistoric Native American shell rings are being threatened by erosion.  

PHOTO FOCUS: A study in black and white

PHOTO FOCUS: A study in black and white

By English Purcell, special to Charleston Currents |  I grew up on James Island and was always fascinated with McLeod Plantation.  Its slave quarters were visible near one of only two ways off the island. The owner at the time, Willie McLeod, always sat behind my grandmother at St. James Episcopal Church. 

More recently, I took one of the interpretive tours at McLeod.  It focused on enslaved Africans and their lives there. I decided to shoot the series from the perspective of the enslaved on a plantation to draw attention to what they saw in their everyday lives. I must note that the enslaved were not just on plantations. Behind just about every big house on the peninsula of Charleston were slave quarters: laundries, kitchen houses, carriage houses and stables. 

This series tells a story without words. The title “A study in black and white” has, of course, a double meaning: Black, representing the enslaved, and white, representing the slave owners.  I also edited the photos in black and white.

This Greenway bin along Canterbury Road overflowed with trash, obviously neglected for awhile compared to other similar locations.  Photos by Andy Brack.

PHOTO ESSAY: West Ashley Greenway needs a little tender loving care

Staff reports  |  If there’s one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has done, it’s made people get outside more often.  The perfect testament is the West Ashley Greenway, which seems busier than ever.  

But the upside of more use also means there’s more trash and wear on what essentially is a walking park that stretches for miles. 

This photo essay shows conditions along the greenway at various West Ashley intersections with city streets.

If you want to let the city know what you think about its parks, the city is undertaking an update to its comprehensive plan (see news briefs), which includes seeking input about parks and recreation. 

You can have your say by clicking on this link: 

Take the One Charleston park survey.

These photos follow the greenway from Folly Road to Arrington Drive.

by · 08/24/2020 · 1 comment · Focus, Photo Essay, Photos
Photos by Rob Byko. Copyright, 2020.

PHOTO ESSAY: Calhoun statue comes down in Charleston

Staff reports  |  Contributing photographer Rob Byko captured the moment Wednesday (above) that a statue of John C. Calhoun cracked away from its pedestal after workers sawed and chiseled for 17 hours to free it.  

After Charleston City Council voted Tuesday night to take down the statue, work crews arrived shortly after midnight Wednesday to start the removal process. Originally, officials thought it would take a few hours to unattach the bronze statue from the 115-foot pedestal at Marion Square, but workers discovered they had to saw through a metal rod inserted more than a century ago to provide stability, particularly from hurricane-force winds. 

Throughout the day, hundreds stopped by to watch the workers’ progress.  Just after 5 p.m., the statue came down.  It then was loaded onto a truck and taken away.  Read more about what happened Wednesday.

by · 06/29/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Photo Essay, Photos
Photo by Jackson Bailes.

FOCUS: Peaceful protest followed by looting, clean-up and curfew

Staff reports  |  Saturday brought a pretty peaceful protest of up to 1,000 people marching through the streets of downtown Charleston.  But as night fell, looters ransacked stores and eateries already suffering from weeks of closure due to the novel coronavirus.  

Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd as rioters, generally thought to be a different set of people from protesters, threw bricks, rocks and furniture through windows along King Street, particularly causing damage north of Calhoun Street. By 10 p.m., a countywide curfew was in effect.

Just before midnight, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg released the following statement:  “The murder of George Floyd has rightly caused outrage here and across the country. And while we as Charlestonians strongly support all of the good men and women who are peacefully and lawfully protesting that terrible crime, we cannot and will not condone acts of violence and vandalism in our city. …

by · 06/01/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Photo Essay, Photos
The much-ballyhooed French pizza dog of Provence.  Photos by Rob Byko.

PHOTO ESSAY, Byko: The streets of Provence

A few years back, contributing Realtor and Sullivan’s Island photographer Rob Byko and his wife, Karen Byko, had a fun trip in Provence in southern France.  Rob shares some photos from that trip as a virtual break from the toils of sheltering at home. 

He writes:

“A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, the fundamental things apply, as time goes by…but after weeks of self-isolation, Zoom-meetings and hurried trips to the grocery, your ability to maintain a positive mental outlook has been called into question.

“The kids are home from school, the twenty-somethings are back at home AND out of work. The kitchen is a mess — too many home-cooked meals and too many dishes left in the sink. Your nerves are frayed and you’d like to just get away, but summer travel plans are on hold for obvious reasons. 

by · 04/27/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Photo Essay, Photos
PHOTO ESSAY: The beauty of Crab Bank

PHOTO ESSAY: The beauty of Crab Bank

The folks at the S.C. Coastal Conservation League shared some great photos over email over the weekend to relieve cabin fever and to show the wildlife that remains at Crab Bank in Charleston harbor. “Crab Bank is one of the few places on the Atlantic coast where you can watch sea and shorebirds nesting—and we’re lucky enough to have it […]

by · 04/20/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Photo Essay, Photos
PHOTO ESSAY, Byko: Roadside beauty

PHOTO ESSAY, Byko: Roadside beauty

By Karen Byko, special to Charleston Currents  | Separated and confined to my yard, excluding the short walks around my neighborhood with the dogs, I have had to challenge myself to rediscover the extraordinary gifts of beauty that surround me every day.