Anacostia Park Riverwalk

Author's Comments

Most of the city does not think about the Anacostia. That is part of why I come here. The eastern bank of the river has a trail that runs for miles and is genuinely quiet even on Saturday mornings, and the light on the water in October has a particular grey-gold quality that I do not find anywhere else in the District. The river is wide enough to hold real sky. On overcast mornings the reflections go painterly, the clouds doubling themselves in a way the Potomac rarely allows because the Potomac is always being watched. The herons are the reward for showing up early. They work the marshy edges before the joggers arrive, standing with that particular stillness that makes them hard to spot until they move. I have watched one fish for twenty minutes without taking a single frame worth keeping, and then the light shifted and the bird turned and everything arrived at once. That is how this place works. It does not hand you the photograph. It asks you to wait. The Sousa Bridge in the distance gives the wide shots something to anchor on, and in spring the banks go green quickly. Come with a long lens for the birds and a wider one for the river itself. Come before the mist burns off. This is not a place that will impress anyone at first glance, and that is exactly the point.

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