ANGELA B. PAN

I still can’t believe this was almost a month ago. It was such a spur of the moment trip but everything was absolutely perfect. The timing, the weather, the company. I loved everything about our overnight trip to West Virginia.

Since it was so last minute, I had no idea what to expect. I just knew I was in for an adventure. I kept my camera in my hands for pretty much the entire hike up Seneca Rocks. This bridge was right at the beginning. I could see from a distance that the bridge went up a little bit in the middle so I knew I told Jennie and Audrey to go ahead of me and I was going to take pictures of them walking on the bridge. I really liked how the tree trunks were such distinct lines framing the bridge, especially those in the background. The white trunks really pop.

And yes, those are hiking poles that they’re walking with. HAHAHA Jennie is so prepared for adventure that she had a spare that Audrey and I shared. But I’m thankful for her and all her outdoor knowledge. I learned a lot from her about hiking, like how she finds the hikes, how she plans them and even the equipment she uses. Out of the many things that we talked about, for some reason it was the breakfast that stands out in my mind.

You know those squeeze pouches that you see little kids eating apple sauce out of? Did you know they haves for oatmeal too? I don’t know why, but this seriously blew my mind. Here’s the link in case you wanted to check them out. LOL Jennie was so generous that she packed one for Audrey and I and I was surprised how good they were. Who knew eating oatmeal could be so easy? I definietly want to get some for the next time I’m on a hike. They were just so convient. I had the apple cinnamon flavor and I was a fan.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/1600sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm lens.

Happy Happy New Year!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!! 2018!

In 2017, I set a goal to travel for photo at least once a season. Mission accomplished. Here are my favorite travel images from 2017 in chronological order.

Click on the pictures to read my original blog post.

Iceland, you beautiful country. I love you. I’ll see you again soon, k?

Captured in the middle of the day with my 10-stop neutral density filter. I love that thing. I keep it in my camera bag at all times.

Took this one just a few hours after the previous image but on the other side of the sea stacks. Crazy how the different point of view changes so much.

One of my favorite parts about Iceland, the horses! They’re so sweet.

I’m not sure if you noticed or not but once I got back from Iceland, I decided to work on my blog even more. Yes, I still post new images every weekday, but I’m taking the time out to write longer and more thoughtful blog posts. I just thought that an interesting change from this trip that I wanted to note.

I captured this image in Virginia at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. That counts as travel, right? My favorite part of this image is that little ripple the fish on top is making with his tail.

Arches National Park in Utah. This was one of the first images I captured at sunrise. I just love how the sun burst balances out the red rocks on the right hand side.

I fell in love in the spring and it was with Colorado. Man o man, I gotta go back in 2018.

Rocky National Park is one of my favorites. It’s so hard to take a bad picture.

The beginning of our epic cross country road trip. That was one adventure that I’ll never forget.

Taken on a tripod and a 10 second timer. I must have looked crazy constantly running back and forth in my flip flops. LOL oh well. Wasn’t the first time.

My first time seeing saguaro cactuses in real life. They are amazingly beautiful and so big. Now that I think of it, I should of taken another self portrait like I did in the previous image here.

Visited Maine for the first time in October. I love how spacious and airy this image is.

It was hard to find this perspective but once I did, it was totally worth the early morning wake up call and the climb down slippery rocks.

That’s it. Those were my favorite travel images of 2017. Can’t wait to capture even more in the new year.
In case you missed it, I did the same thing with just Washington DC photos. Click here to check them out.

The end of 2017 is fast approaching and I can’t help but reflect on the amazing year it’s been. I think this whole week on the blog I’ll talk about all the fun photo adventures of the year. It started off with an awesome trip to Iceland. It was my second time there but definietly not my last. If you’ve never been to Iceland, it’s hard to describe. It’s just so amazingly beautiful and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

I took this image on one of the last days we were there. We had shot sunrise and was wondering around Höfn when we stumbled upon this group of horses. It was beautiful because the early morning light was hitting them perfectly. But if you look at this guy in the eye, you can totally tell how calm and relaxed they all are. The horses in Iceland are super chill and so great to pet… and hug… and basically obsess over.

Shout out to Peak Design for their awesome camera straps. I have the clutch, which is basically a camera strap for your hand. I love it! It makes it so easy to carry around and shoot from different angles. I was able to get this low perspective without having to bend down. I just had my arm straight out, pointed up, and I didn’t have to worry about dropping it at all. Its kinda fun to see what you end up with. It was not serious shooting but shooting for fun and if you get something that turns out cool, it’s even better!

Click here if you’d like to see more images from Iceland.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/100th of a second ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Shot on the same puddle as this image. Even on a super cold, windy day there will always be people running around the tidal basin. I don’t know how they do it, especially in shorts. Anyways, I saw him running from 100 ft away. I immediately got into position where I thought I could get him and the Washington Monument in the same shot, squatted down low and hoped that it would work out. Luckily it did. This was probably about 20 minutes after the first image was shot though. Thats why this one is way more moodier and darker than the other one. I really like how the guy is almost silhouetted.

In other news, Andrew and I have booked our next trip! We’re going to be flying into Denver and road tripping it to Moab, UT and Rocky Mountain National Park. If you’ve been there, please let me know if you have any recommendations. Hotel, food, photography, whatever. Neither of us have ever been and I’m super excited to explore the mile high city and for our road trip. I know its going to be amazingly beautiful. One of my friends just came back from there and he was telling me that the altitude sickness is real while in Denver. After a quick amazon search, I’m not sure which medicine would be the best for us. So if you have any experience with that, please let me know as well. I never thought I’d get motion sickness but recently there have been times when I’m on a boat and will get pretty ill. I’d like to prevent anything like that from happening on our trip so I can maximize my photography time. Oh YEA!

This is going to be an awesome experience. I’ve always felt like I’ve only been to the coasts and edges of the United States but never anywhere in the middle. Really looking forward to the adventure 🙂

I love how Europeans travel on bikes. It’s definitely not like where I live in Virginia where everyone is in a car. You hardly see anyone on bikes. But in Paris, you see people coming home from work or going to the grocery store on them. It’s such great exercise and great for the environment. It makes me want to bust out my bike but I haven’t actually ridden one since middle school.