By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | “THE WIENERMOBILE IS IN TOWN!” Karen Byko shouted excitedly. “One day, if I’m really, really lucky, I will be the driver of this awesomely fabulous vehicle!”
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | Pup Bowl IV, billed locally as “the most adorable football game ever, was held for three hours Saturday at Mount Pleasant’s Towne Centre.
Charleston Animal Society suited up 17 rookie free agents and a handful of older veterans – known affectionately as “retired players. They strutted their stuff in front of nearly 250 people gathered at The Oaks to watch part in the action. The crowd was masked-up and tried to remain socially distant as all anxiously awaited kickoff.
The event, a pet adoption and family-fun benefit, also featured live music, balloon animals, food, snacks and fund-raising for the society.
With game-faces on, the four-legged gridders rambled onto the field tussling and taunting each other, hoping to catch the eye of the young scouts who encircled the gated turf. …
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | An estimated 300 people turned out Saturday for a march from Colonial Lake to Brittlebank Park as part of about 400 women’s marches across the country. Here are some photos from the Charleston event:
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 Rob Byko, special to Charleston Currents | Sullivan’s Island townsfolk, a few visitors and a smattering of stoic fans of South Carolina and Revolutionary War history on Saturday got together to commemorate Carolina Day, the 244th anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. The annual event, co-sponsored by Sullivan’s Island and the Battery Gadsden Cultural Center (BatteryGadsden.com), was held at the Sullivan’s Island Town Hall Plaza. The move from last year’s venue, Fort Moultrie National Park, was necessitated by ongoing concerns over the spike in COVID-19 cases reported across the state. Masks and social distancing were adequately observed by a majority of those in attendance, though not by all.
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.
Photos by contributing photographer Rob Byko | The new year brought toasts, resolutions, hoppin’ john and collard greens. And for some brave (crazy?) few, Jan. 1 was a day to strip down into summer wear and run into the ocean. Doesn’t sound like something we’d want to do — but the annual party on Sullivan’s Island does sound great. Here are some fun photos by Rob Byko showing what you missed — and may want to take on next year!
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | Approaching Magnolia Plantation at night through the gates along a winding drive, you can tell you’re in for a treat. Over the treetops and through the underbrush, you see your first glimpse of the brilliant lights in colors too numerous to mention.
Entering the festival grounds, the evening explodes in color and sound. The lights’ reflections wash over joyful faces of patrons walking the garden paths. The light dances along ponds and through the eyes of children who seem lost in the fantasy.
An easy walking trail guides you first along a fairy tale of characters, followed by flowers and fauna taller than your head. Then you meet huge butterflies and ladybugs, pandas and peacocks. Turn a corner and you find a kaleidoscope from the animal kingdom featuring playful lions, stoic zebras and tigers so vivid they seem real.
Finally, the tour returns to fantasy, placing you face-to-face with a 200-foot-long dragon whose majestic head soars more than 45 feet in the air. …
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | On Friday night when most folks in Charleston were just getting home from their work week, meeting friends for dinner or heeding happy hour’s last call, a few hundred folks got together at Riverfront Park to attend “Lights for Liberty – A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps.”
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | There’s a diversity of subject matter from Sullivan’s Island in these scenes shot over the last few years. Enjoy!
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