Gravelly Point Park

Author's Comments

I did not expect to love this place as much as I do. On paper it is strange - a patch of grass beside the Potomac where the main attraction is the underside of a 737. In practice it is one of the more oddly joyful places in the region, especially on a warm Saturday in May when the park fills with families and couples and a few serious photographers with long lenses pointed north. The planes come in low. Lower than you think they will, even after someone has told you how low. There is a moment, just before the aircraft passes overhead, when the sound catches up with the sight and everyone on the ground looks up at once. I have watched strangers laugh out loud at this. It does not get old. The photograph worth waiting for is late afternoon in summer, when the planes are backlit and the Washington Monument sits across the river in the same frame. A 70 to 200 is the right lens. Something longer if you want to isolate the aircraft against the sky, something shorter if you want the context - the river, the city, the small human crowd on the grass watching the same thing you are watching. Golden hour is when this park earns its keep. The bellies of the planes go warm. The Potomac softens. The monuments across the water take on that particular DC light that is hard to describe and impossible to forget. Bring a blanket. Bring someone who does not usually care about photography. They will care here.

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