Toddler Explorations at Fort Washington Park

The best moments and shots are the ones that naturally come together - although, I’ve seen some A-team level stage photography. If you follow Julia Fullerton-Batten (https://juliafullerton-batten.com/) or generally peruse the International Photography Awards (https://www.photoawards.com/), you’ll soon realize the incredible amount of time and effort that goes into photography projects. Sometimes a shot is fleeting and you feel grateful you got the shot (true for most of my toddler pictures) while others involve a lot of time and planning. I certainly hope to get the chance to do both. 

Lately, I’ve been going around to all different location types to envision how to draw out the beauty in each one. This particular trip to Fort Washington Park (https://www.nps.gov/fowa/learn/historyculture/stories.htm) was a means to capture a toddler’s fascination with the various aspects of a historic site built in 1809. I saw pictures online and felt immediately drawn to it - the history, battles, wars, how it stood the test of time for over 2 centuries and through multiple conflicts. Indeed, the buildings and park grounds are very well maintained. There’s a lot of love that goes into this place and I can see why. There’s an old world charm to it all and I’m sad we didn’t get to see all of it. You can supposedly get close to the Potomac River or view a lighthouse. We examined Battery Smith and the main defense wall/gate on Fort Washington. 

I’m not a history buff, but I admire the civil engineering that went into the place. How much action have these walls seen? I imagine the various soldiers who filtered through, running about, gathering and storing supplies, shouting orders at each other, thinking about their families and defending the front line. The sounds of gunfire, the cynical jokes passed between the men, discussing their hopes for the future. Did someone sleep in this room? Was food kept there? What about a storefront? Why is there a hole on the second floor wall - did it fall through at some point or did people use it as a shortcut to drop supplies down? I imagine a dramatic war movie playing in front of me.

While I do marvel at the wonders of concrete structures, my daughter and I simply enjoyed wandering around and admiring the sights. I took photos where I could and at some point realized she looked like an orphan in a couple shots. It was a combination of the angle of sunlight, my toddler having gobbled down cherries beforehand, her outfit that we picked (it was sleeveless on a hot day), and the doll her great grandma handmade and passed down to her. It was all coincidental but I thought made for a dramatic look when I glanced at the photo. As my daughter is only 2, she is near impossible to pose. So, I generally spray and pray I capture a good image while she’s running around…

In reality, I usually see a moment happening before me and have a split-second thought about how it’s photography material. The praying happens in the time between this thought developing and me actually taking the shot since I’m spending precious seconds raising my camera to my face and adjusting settings. I do a mental dance every time I feel the photograph turns out well. Fort Washington Park was both challenging and amazing in this regard. The light changed so much and my daughter moved so quickly that I simply hoped I didn’t clip the histogram in camera. On the other hand, the lighting made for amazing dramatic shots. In two images, my daughter stands on a hill overlooking the Potomac. My breath was taken away in the moment and I hoped above all hopes she would stay there just long enough for me to get a good shot. She must have enjoyed the view too because she paused longer than usual.