Skip to main content

Steampunk at the Fort Washington


At the beginning of October, I got the chance to do a steampunk photoshoot with Nerdenheim Jen at Fort Washington National Park.   The only downside is that it was raining that morning.

Fort Washington NP, is located in Maryland along the Potomac River, and is the site of fort built in 1842. It was the only defense for the US capital until the Civil War.  The fort is very well maintained and has several of the original structures from the 1840’s. It also has concrete structures and embattlements from World War I and World War II.    All this makes it an excellent location for a photo shoot and has both outdoor and indoor areas.

For this shoot, I had to obtain a permit from the National Park Service, because I was using a model and lighting equipment.  For the shoot I used the following equipment: Canon 70D, 18-200mm lens, Yong Nuo radio triggers, speed-light, painters pole, 2 large golf rain umbrellas, camera rain cover, gallon sized Ziploc bag, and an assistant.  I used the 60-inch diameter rain umbrellas to keep the model dry while moving around the site. I used the Ziploc bag to protect the flash and radio trigger, which were mounted on the painters pole that my assistant held.  I did not use a standard light stand for this shoot, because it was windy and rainy, thus making a free standing light stand unwieldly.    I used an ISO of 400, a focal length between 18 – 28mm, an aperture of f5, and a shutter speed between 1/80s to 1/320s with the most common speed being 1/100s.

I love the location of Fort Washington because it lends itself to many different photo concepts. It also has several unique photo locations from ramparts, staircases, southern style porches, cellars, and interesting doors.  My concept for this shoot was to approach it like a fashion shoot or a magazine editorial shoot that highlights the outfit and steampunk theme.  Since it was raining at the beginning of the shoot, we were originally limited to areas that provided cover from the elements. However, this led to some interesting pictures inside the fort and in the old jail cells.  As the rain cleared, we were left with a stormy looking sky and were able to go up to the ramparts at the top of the fort.  We also did a costume change during this shoot, which I haven’t been able to do before.  My favorite photos from after the costume change were when we headed down to the old concrete embattlements. In this area, we were able to put the river in the background of some of the shots and do some post-apocalyptic looking shots.


When I edited the photos from this session, I let the feeling of the photo guide me in the editing process. I also was looking to be able to tell a story with the photos to be able to build a strong series. During the editing process I leaned towards darker images, and an antique look, especially for the green dress.

 



While for the red dress I ended up doing some traditional fashion edits and then going for the apocalyptic look for the photos around the concrete embattlement.   

 

 Overall, I’m very happy with how this shoot turned out, and Nerdenheim Jen was very happy with the photos. It is always nice to hear from your models they can’t narrow down there choices to just 10 images.  You can see all the images from the session here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...
Post a Comment
Read more