Susan’s photos used on magazine covers
Monomoy Photography
(508)308-1051- Susan’s Cellular phone (accepts text messages!)
formerly known as Clemence Photography
Providing Cape Cod with photography services since 1989, we specialize in Beach Portrait photography, families on location and studio portraits, retouching, selective color, digital painting, framing and photo restoration services.
The studio was established in 1989 as Clemence Photography. In 2012 Susan hired a staff of lighting assistants and second shooters, became certified as a professional portrait photographer in Atlanta, GA through PPA, and renamed the studio to Monomoy Photography as part of a rebranding process. The East Harwich Studio is no longer open to the public and all work is done on location. Please call or email for information!
Susan Clemence, Photographer
Wedding Photography
After 600+ weddings photographed on the Cape and Islands in 30 years, I have retired from the wedding industry covering my last event in September, 2019. I will miss the beauty and romance of a Cape Cod wedding, but it’s a younger woman’s game!
Our Community Service
We take pride and pleasure in helping our Cape Cod community by regularly donating time and products, usually a gift certificate for a complete Family Portrait package to events funding causes we believe in. If you are interested in receiving a donation please contact Susan by email at scrowley97@comcast.net.
Annually, for many years we photographed children with Santa during the Harwichport Holiday Stroll for the Harwich Chamber of Commerce, and have often donated to the Monomoy School District, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts, Brewster Baptist Church and other local organizations with photography for families, students, theatre productions, directories and publicity. I offer my time and talent at no charge to support our community programs and non-profit organizations.
Harwich High School Jazz Band Spring, 2012
Harwichport Christmas Stroll 2012
Military Discounts
To show our support to the men and women of our Armed Forces, we offer a 5% discount on any family portrait sitting when there is a family member who is currently serving in any branch of the U.S. Military or has been deployed within the last 5 years.
Thank You for your service!
Professional Associations
We continue learning in this continuously evolving industry and maintain certification credentials by attending educational seminars and courses offered by the local, regional, state and national professional photographers associations and the New England Institute of Professional Photography.
We partner with professional Print Labs for the highest quality printed products and albums.
Our Name Sake…
Monomoy Island is an 8 mile (13 km) long spit of sand extending southwest from Chatham, Cape Cod off the Massachusetts mainland. A stretch of uninhabited sand bar which extends off of North Beach, the barrier beach of Chatham at the “elbow” of Cape Cod.
Having lived in Chatham and spending years of my childhood boating in Pleasant Bay and the Nantucket Sound waters around Monomoy Point with my father and brothers, the pristine island beach holds special significance to me. I enjoyed exploring the natural environment and spent long summer afternoons hiking the dunes with my dog looking for beach glass, seashells and observing the wild life, especially fascinated by the skates and sand sharks trapped in the tidal pools after a high tide.
The name has grown common on the lower Cape. The public school districts of Chatham (where I graduated high school) and Harwich (where my children have all attended) in 2014 merged into what is now the Monomoy School district. The Monomoy River runs from Muddy Creek in little Pleasant Bay winding inland through the conservation lands and into marshland. I kayak there often and used to hike in the Monomoy River Conservation lands almost daily with my 2 border collies.
Monomoy Island
A little History:
It was taken over by the US government just before World War II. The island was home to the Monomoy Island Gunnery Range until 1944 when the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge was established.
Despite its remoteness Monomoy was home to its own community as early as 1710. A tavern for sailors was opened up in the location of today’s Hospital Pond, known then as Wreck Cove.
During the early 19th century a deep natural harbor at Monomoy’s inner shore, known as the Powder Hole, attracted a sizeable fishing settlement. In its prime Whitewash Village housed about 200 residents, a tavern inn called Monomoit House, and Public School #13, which at one time boasted 16 students. Cod and mackerel brought in to the Monomoy port were dried and packed for markets in Boston and New York. Lobsters were also plentiful, providing both food and income for the villagers, who peddled them to mainlanders at about two cents apiece.
The village was abandoned after its harbor was washed away by a hurricane around 1860. A storm in the spring of 1958 carved a wide shallow channel between Morris Island and Monomoy, separating it from the mainland. The Blizzard of 1978 further divided the island into North Monomoy and South Monomoy. A storm during the winter of 2006-2007 once again reconnected South Monomoy to the mainland, although North Monomoy remains an island. The island was designated in 1970 a Federal Wildlife Refuge, serving as an important stop on the migratory routes of 285 species of birds. Since gaining Federal protection in 1972, Gray seals have become a common sight on Monomoy and nearby Chatham’s South Beach island.
Monomoy has no human residents, no electricity, no paved roads; today, in fact, the only reminder of Monomoy’s habitation is the Monomoy Point Light, which guided ships from 1828 to 1923. The wooden lightkeeper’s quarters, the cast iron light tower, and the brick generator house are alone on the desolate point of the South Island.
Recently, Atlantic Great White Sharks were spotted and tagged by the crew of the F/V Ezyduzit. The sharks have been spotted as far north as North Truro, Massachusetts. These sharks have known to grow up to 25 feet and eat black seals near the beach shore.