Category Archives: Creative Writing

03/29/18 ~ Susan

Gone Fishin’

Solitary Fisherman

Where have I been? Gone fishin’— in other words, taking a break. Like me, if you experience a time when your creativity feels stifled, it’s better to take a break than go through the motions—especially with something as personal as photography and other types of art (and blogging for that matter). If you’re not feeling creative, it will be difficult to capture mood and essence in your photography.

Along those lines, my style is to photograph by feel rather than stick to hard and fast rules, so mood and emotion play a part in each photograph. Although it’s important to know all the settings on your camera and to master all the aspects of producing a great photograph such as lighting and composition, trust your instincts as well. If you’re preoccupied with setting things up for the perfect photo or churning out numerous photos, you may miss that golden moment when the light is sparkling around your subject or a unique opportunity is revealing itself right in front of you. The photograph in this post, “Solitary Fisherman“, was one of those opportunities. Although the lighting was not optimal to be taking any photographs, I was amazed when I saw the perfect outline of the fisherman against a sepia sky, right down to the detail on his fishing pole.

Having the camera in my hands allows me to feel my way through the process, especially when photographing moving subjects or unusual lighting situations. Mood plays a part in the final outcome, and I believe the only way to sense and capture that mood is to feel your way through it.

So, if you’re just not feelin’ it—go fishin’!

**One more note…stop by virtually to visit my portfolio at  Susan DeTomi Fine Art Photography Portfolio.

01/28/16 ~ Susan

Sparkling New Year!

Frosted Berries

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and a great start to the New Year! I sympathize with those who had to deal with harsh winter conditions and an avalanche of snow in the Northeast and beyond. Charleston certainly had its share of bad weather this year, but snow was not in the mix.

The truth is, I enjoy chilly weather and snow during the winter—it allows you to appreciate the sunny beautiful days even more.

More on the positive side:

❄ Everything seems cozier inside when it’s cold and snowy outside.
❄ There’s nothing like the smell of comfort food wafting from the kitchen.
❄ A peaceful quietude permeates the air when it’s snowing.
❄ When it’s chilly outside, everything sparkles a little brighter.

04/9/13 ~ Susan

Springtime in the Lowcountry

Awash in Bloom

Spring finally arrived in the South Carolina lowcountry (low-lying region along the coast) as plantations and gardens awash with color boast abundant varieties of flora, including azaleas, irises, wisteria, dogwood, and others. The lowcountry possesses an ethereal beauty that is unlike any other, bringing thousands of visitors to the area every year just to witness the fleeting spectacle.

Walking around Magnolia Plantation with my camera, I bumped into one such visitor on the wooden bridge that traverses the swamp, shown in featured photograph “Awash in Bloom”,  sporting a point-and-shoot camera and a bewildered expression on his face. We greeted one another, and then he confessed his extreme frustration at leaving his good camera equipment at home, lamenting, “I just didn’t expect this. I’m not sure how impressed I was with anything until I saw this, right here, right now! This is amazing!”

02/15/13 ~ Susan

New Topics on Photography!

I’m expanding this photoblog to feature articles on photography-related topics in addition to continuing with its original focus—to display featured photographs blended with creative writing.

Customers approach me to discuss all aspects of photography, so adding those discussion topics for blog postings seems like the perfect way to share them!

07/25/12 ~ Susan

Ode to Angel Oak

Indelible Imprint, Limited Edition

The featured Limited Edition photograph, “Indelible Imprint“, and the haiku that follows express my fascination with a well-known magnificent Southern Live Oak tree—the Angel Oak located on Johns Island, South Carolina. A previous release of a similar photograph taken on the same day, “Mighty Angel Oak“, was very popular with customers.

Southern Live Oaks are amazing trees with curving branches that reach out in every direction and then arch up again toward the sky, and the Angel Oak is the granddaddy of them all.  Measuring 65 feet tall with limbs stretching out to 180 feet at their widest point, tip-to-tip (according to Wikipedia), the Angel Oak is the oldest living Live Oak tree in the Southeast and has quite a following. Each time I visit the tree, I witness the awe and admiration surrounding it. Visitors from all over the world are snapping pictures and can often be seen hugging the tree, hoping to absorb some of its strong life force. The haiku that follows is an ode to the beloved Angel Oak.

Curving ancient limbs
adorned in mossy splendor ~
angel of an oak.

 

06/27/12 ~ Susan

Riding a Butterfly

Sipping Nectar

Riding a Butterfly
If I hitched a ride from a butterfly,
holding tight, wings fluttering beside me—
I wouldn’t have to ramble through brush,
woven with prickers, every pest in tow,
to catch a glimpse of one perfect flower—
gardens and meadows alike, we would go.
My flighty host would alight each blossom,
sipping sweet nectar from a very fine straw;
the flowers would shower us with pollen,
the wind gently blowing the seeds to sow;
the bees would encircle us for hours,
all the while, putting on their jealous show.
– Susan DeTomi

04/3/12 ~ Susan

April Showers

Couple under umbrella at Middleton Place

April Showers

Although it seldom rains around Charleston, there is a refreshing sense of renewal in the air when it does. Instead of rushing indoors, you want to press your face to the sky and feel the cool droplets splash on your skin.

Strolling around Middleton Place and dodging rain showers one April morning, I turned a corner to find a couple framed in azaleas and sharing an umbrella while live oaks formed a perfect canopy over their heads.

10/10/11 ~ Susan

The Boneyard

Botany Bay Boneyard

The Boneyard

The Boneyard seems like a befitting theme as Halloween approaches, yet the boneyard captured in this picture doesn’t quite match the one that comes to mind—the image of a graveyard, scattered with headstones tended by splintered black trees, stabbing their craggy limbs into the steel gray sky. This graveyard belongs to Mother Nature, a graveyard of trees slowly being reclaimed by the sea, trees that are now just remnants of what they once were. This place possesses a haunting beauty, a dichotomy of life and death that transcends elements of nature into the supernatural.

Despite the outward forces of destruction, life is teeming in and around the boneyard at Botany Bay Plantation: surf continues to batter the shoreline, pelicans fly in symmetrical formations overhead, and the sun shines so bright you can scarcely steal a glance at the Carolina blue sky. The sculptural tree relics of the boneyard contrast starkly against the life-giving blues of the sky and still, this place of turbulence is much more than a ghostly apparition. A diverse wildlife population flourishes nearby, including endangered species such as Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Wilson’s Plovers, and Least Terns. After spotting one of the rare Painted Buntings that inhabit this coastal area, I am reminded once again that life goes on.

08/18/11 ~ Susan

Little Armored One

"Little Armored One"

Little Armored One

Encounter with a Baby Armadillo

After chasing several varieties of dragonflies on the Edisto Nature Trail a couple of months ago, I heard something rustling in the dead leaves to the left of the walkway, where I spotted a small patch of gray peaking through the mélange of brown. What could this naked, hairless patch of gray be connected to? A snake? Some type of reptile?

The rustling continued until, up popped two ears, alert and erect, followed by a pointy snout. The little body emerged, scaled and practically hairless, followed by a long, segmented tail. It then became clear that this little critter was a baby armadillo, somewhat resembling Piglet from Winnie the Pooh. It brought to mind a family trip to Florida many years ago when I saw my first armadillo, only that earlier siting was a full grown one, sizable in comparison to this little baby and fully encased in a shell of “armor”.

The critter continued foraging through the dead leaves, waddling along, while intermittently poking his head down into the leaves. He was so small, I could nearly fit his entire body in the palm of my hand, but of course I did not, fearing the mother’s retribution to me and to her baby. So I left him there, alone, to find his own way, his mother nowhere in sight. Afterwards, my discovery left me wanting to learn more about this little creature that I stumbled upon in the forest, so I did my own digging…

It is no wonder that the armadillo is such a prehistoric looking creature, as its most recent ancestor existed 60 million years ago; however, it was much larger than the present day armadillo, which typically weighs between 8 and 17 pounds. According to Audubon, the nine-banded armadillo is the only species of armadillo living in the United States, although there are 20 different species of the mammal in Latin America. The name armadillo is of Spanish origin and means “little armored one” due to the hard shells on its head, back, legs, and tail, which do not harden until the animal is fully grown. Armadillos make their homes in shady areas such as forests and brushland. They mainly eat a wide range of insects and larvae, including earthworms, spiders, snails, cockroaches, ants, wasps, flies, beetles, and such, searching for their prey by burrowing and digging into ground litter. They often become road kill victims on the highway due to their natural instinct of jumping upwards when faced by a predator, which doesn’t help them much when approached by a moving vehicle.

Although the armadillo is associated with negative connotations, being the only other mammal to carry leprosy other than humans and often being implicated as a nuisance to homeowners and golf-course operators alike due to its burrowing behavior, I prefer to think of this creature in a more whimsical way. Rudyard Kipling said it best in, “The Beginning of the Armadillo”, a story about how a hedgehog, who couldn’t swim, and a turtle, who couldn’t curl up, became an armadillo, who could do both. The Mother Jaguar in the story remarks at the end, “But it isn’t a hedgehog, and it isn’t a tortoise. It’s a little bit of both, and I don’t know its proper name.”