Fort Hunt Park, Virginia /  by Todd Henson

Entering Fort Hunt Park, part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia

Fort Hunt Park is located near Mount Vernon, along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, on land once owned by George Washington as part of his River Farm plantation. It is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which is a national park. Though primarily a recreational park, with sports fields, playgrounds and areas for picnics or cookouts, it is also of historic significance.

Pavilion A at Fort Hunt Park, located at the main parking area, surrounded by open fields

Fort Hunt was completed in 1897, just in time for the Spanish-American War. It was built as part of the Endicott Coastal Defense System, proposed by Secretary of War William C. Endicott, to upgrade the country’s coastal defenses. Being located on the Potomac River, Fort Hunt, along with Fort Washington, across the river in Maryland, were tasked with protecting Washington, D.C. from naval assault.

A view of Battery Mount Vernon at Fort Hunt Park along the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia.

Though completed before the start of the Spanish-American War, Fort Hunt never actually saw any action during that war. As technology advanced, the coastal defense system provided by installations like Fort Hunt were no longer needed, so its guns were dismantled and sent off to support World War I operations. But the fort continued to be used by the military until the 1930s, when it was converted into a Civilian Conservation Corp camp.

In 1933, Fort Hunt became Fort Hunt Park, part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a national park. However, with the onset of World War II, Fort Hunt was temporarily turned back over to the military and used for top secret military intelligence operations. This lasted four years, after which it returned to its status as national park land.

Today you can visit and walk along some of the remains of the military fortifications of Fort Hunt. There are four batteries still located in the park, as well as the Battery Commander’s Station.

Battery Sater

Battery Sater, Fort Hunt Park, Virginia

Battery Sater was completed in 1904 and supported three 3-inch rapid-fire guns with a range of 4.5 miles. It was the last of the four gun batteries completed, and also served as a command center for mines placed in the Potomac River between Fort Hunt and Fort Washington.

One section of Battery Sater from the ground level.

Looking out at Battery Sater from the top level.

A leaf filled walkway of Battery Sater.

A look inside one of the closed off rooms of Battery Sater.

I enjoyed photographing Battery Sater. It was one of the two batteries, along with Battery Mount Vernon, that supported three guns, making it second largest of the structures. There were lots of interesting little nooks and crannies to see while walking its walls. I even tried using the high ISO features of my camera to see into the dark of some of it’s closed off rooms.

Battery Porter

Looking up at Battery Porter, Fort Hunt Park, Virginia

Battery Porter was completed in 1902 and supported one 5-inch rapid-fire gun with a range of 7 miles. This gun was intended to draw enemy ships into range of the larger and more powerful guns of Battery Mount Vernon.

Battery Porter is fairly small, as it supported a single gun, so I didn’t create many photographs of this location.

Battery Robinson

Battery Robinson, just outside the main entrance to Fort Hunt Park, Virginia

Battery Robinson was completed in 1902 and, similar to Battery Porter, supported one 5-inch rapid-fire gun, whose purpose was also to draw enemy ships into range of the larger guns.

Battery Robinson is located just outside the fenced entrance to the park. I photographed it on a different day than the majority of the photos in this post. With the leaves off the trees I noticed you can see the Potomac River from this location.

Battery Mount Vernon

Battery Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt Park, Virginia

Battery Mount Vernon was the first and the largest of the batteries at Fort Hunt. It was completed in 1898 and supported three 8-inch breech loading disappearing guns with a range of 8 miles. They were called disappearing guns because their recoil energy was used to lower them down below the protective walls. When they were reloaded they would be raised back above the walls to fire.

Looking down the length of Battery Mount Vernon, one of the batteries to the left.

Looking out at a battery of Battery Mount Vernon.

Turning away from the battery, towards the rest of the fort.

Looking out of Battery Mount Vernon to the rest of Fort Hunt Park.

Gated off rooms at the lower level of Battery Mount Vernon. Nothing can escape graffiti these days.

Battery Mount Vernon was the most interesting to photograph, as it was the largest and most complex of the structures. You can’t go inside any of these structures (they were closed off to protect the public from the asbestos and other chemicals in use at the time), but it has a lot of interesting elements along the outside. I created a few more artistic photographs of Battery Mount Vernon, including An Eye to the Battery, Facing Down the Tower, and Stepping From the Dark.

Battery Commander’s Station

The Battery Commander’s Station is the tower to the right. Battery Mount Vernon is on the left.

The Battery Commander’s Station was a tower used to observe the Potomac River and direct fire at oncoming ships. It could also be used to signal Fort Washington across the river in Maryland.

I’ve visited Fort Hunt Park a couple times now. It is a small park and easy to see in a short span of time. Of course, with the photographic opportunities of the batteries it would also be easy to spend many hours here. I hope to return during different seasons to see how the scenery around the batteries change. Perhaps I’ll update this page in the future with any new photographs I create.

I wouldn’t necessarily plan a long trip just to visit Fort Hunt Park. But if you’re in the area, or interested in history, it’s well worth the visit if time permits. It is easy to get to, right off the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and is open year-round from sunrise to sunset. If you visit leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of the park and its old fortifications.

Originally posted May 7, 2019. Updated March 2, 2020.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

Before & After: Water & Stone /  by Todd Henson

A look at the before & after of the image, Water & Stone.

Sometimes folks are curious how much work happens in post-production after the image file leaves the camera. So today I thought I’d show a simple example of a before and an after image. Sometimes I spend hours tweaking a photo in Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop, but most times, such as this one, I spend very little time and make a small number of adjustments.

If you use a camera that produces JPEG images then you may not need to make any adjustments in post. JPEG is a “finished” file format. Cameras have all kinds of settings, and these are baked in when shooting to JPEG, meaning the camera creates an image ready to be displayed. When shooting JPEG, for the most part you are letting the camera do the work of processing the image.

Some cameras can also produce images in a custom raw format. This gives us, as photographers, much more control. When shooting JPEG we let the camera do all the processing. When shooting raw the camera just captures all the information it can and packs that into the file, leaving it to us to process that data into a finished image later, in software. So raw images are like digital negatives, they require a bit of processing to create a finished photograph, whether that be a print or an image for online viewing. Because of this, sometimes the raw files that come out of cameras are a little dull until we process them.

Water & Stone: The unprocessed raw “before” image.

Water & Stone: The finished “after” image.

Most times I make a very small number of adjustments, often trying to create an image that looks like the actual scene. Other times I try to create something that looks as I imagined the scene based on how it made me feel at the time, which may or may not be exactly how it looked to others. It’s up to us at this point whether to get more artistic or creative in the processing, or just try to bring out what we created in camera. For this example I kept things simple, opting to create an image that looked much like the actual scene.

Let’s take a look at some of the settings I tweaked in Lightroom. I brought down the exposure just a bit to darken the overall image. I brought up the whites, brightening them, and brought down the blacks, darkening them. This increased the contrast, helping get past the dullness raw files sometimes have. I brought up the shadows a bit to keep them from getting too dark when I’d brought down the blacks. I added a bit of clarity and vibrance, which further increased contrast, but in more subtle ways. There were a few other settings I adjusted, but these were the big ones.

Click the image below to cycle back and forth between the before and after image. You’ll see the difference the settings made. These were fairly basic settings. This is how I adjust most photographs, though the specific settings vary based on the image. In future posts I’ll show more before and after examples, some of which may be more involved than this one.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at the before and the after of image making.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

Keep Your Eyes Open - White-tailed Deer /  by Todd Henson

Peek-a-Boo! A White-tailed Deer in the brush.

This post is all about keeping your eyes open when out hiking or photographing. You never know what you might see, what might be hiding just out of view, or perhaps just in view if you’ve trained yourself to see.

Several years ago I was hiking through a local park, mostly photographing birds. But I try to keep my eyes peeled for any movement, pattern, or interesting shapes. And in this case it helped me find a young white-tailed deer hiding in the brush just off the trail.

A White-tailed Deer winking at me as it walked away

Honestly, I don’t know that the deer was actually trying to hide, especially given how close it was to the trail. But it was frozen when I walked by. I noticed it because of those big white ears. They really stood out. So I put down the tripod and started photographing.

These aren’t great photos, but I’m happy I made them. They bring back great memories of being very close to wildlife, something I always enjoy. And they’re a reminder to keep our eyes open when hiking, to continue training our eyes, looking for those patterns that might help us find other animals in the future.

A month later I found these three White-tailed Deer at more of a distance but also hiding in the brush

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!