ANGELA B. PAN

Hi,

Sorry, long time no blog. I realize that my last two blog posts were about the Black Lives Matters protests in Washington DC. It is such a large subject to document and I really wanted to frame the posts in a way that wasn’t political but my experience at each of the protests I had gone to. But after a while, I was not sure how to transition away from that. I had gone to more protests and wanted to share the images, but I did not know how to present the images in a different way. One thing led to another and I sort of felt like I was in a creative rut. So I just didn’t write any blog posts and barely went out to create more pictures to share.

BUT I’M BACK BABY! After spending some time for myself and reflecting on the type of work I want to create, I found myself getting more excited about capturing images and sharing them.

But to automatically switch gears from the protests posts to my favorite road trips from Washington DC, seemed a bit of a weird transition. Don’t get me wrong, I have my favorite road trips blog post about 70% done already and that will probably be the next post after this one, but I figured this blog post can give a little update of what has happened since last time I blogged…

Click here to read more

So my favorite view from the Washington Monument was definitely facing west with views of the World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. It may have been because we were there around sunset and obviously you want to be facing west, but it was the Reflecting Pool that kept on catching my eye. I couldn’t believe how still and peaceful the water looked. It literally looked like glass from above.

But out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an airplane flying by in the sky and you could see it in the reflecting pool. It was the coolest thing ever. Luckily, at that time of the night, there’s pretty much an airplane that flys by ever ten minutes. So I just waited a bit for another one to come and tried my best to capture it in the reflection.

I also love seeing all the traffic around the memorial and into Arlington, Virginia. GAH I love these elevated views. Can’t wait to go up in the Washington Monument again to capture some more!

If you have any questions about getting tickets or what it’s like up there, please feel free to let me know. I’m currently writing a guide that will explain the process.

My camera settings for this image are F4.5 at 1/30th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

I don’t know much about clouds. I remember learning about them in middle school but nothing really stuck except for cirrus clouds. But I do like looking at them. And in the past couple of years of photography, I’ve figured out that mammatus clouds are pretty rare but highly sought after. Like the meteorologists go crazy over them. I’m not sure why other than they look super cool so now I’m always on the lookout for them.

These particular clouds came at sunset, right before full moon shooting. We had a pretty significant storm in the afternoon which caused these stunning clouds and color in the sky. Zack and I were going bananas over the color and running all around the National Mall trying to find different angles to capture it.

It just so happened that a bunch of airplanes were flying into Reagan as well. The storm caused a whole bunch of flight delays earlier in the day so I guess when the sky cleared up, the airplanes started coming in as quickly as possible. It seemed like every 5-10 minutes there was another airplane. But can you imagine looking out your window and seeing this? OMG, what I would have done to be one of the passengers on that airplane.

My camera settings for this image is f6.3 at 1/320th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Happy Friday! I’m so excited for the weekend because Andrew, Frankie and I along with our cousins will be traveling to southern California to spend the first few days of the new year on the west coast. I am loving how this is becoming our annual tradition. As you may know, I love California. There’s just something about the atmosphere that is so chill and relaxing. I can’t think of a better way to ring in the new year. Plus it’s going to be considerably warmer there. *Praise hands emoji*

The first part of the trip will be spent in Joshua Tree National Park. We got this cute airbnb that has a really nice yard. I know Frankie will love it. Please let me know if you have been and have any recommendations for what to do there. It will be all of ours first time in the park and really looking forward to some fresh air.

The rest of the time will be spent in San Diego. I plan on capturing all the sunrises and sunsets I can but also catching up with friends that we haven’t seen in a year. Since our trip last year, I have definitely learned the types of images that I want to capture while in SoCal. I’m so looking forward to exploring even more.

Honestly, 2018 was one of the best years ever. Of course there were some lows but the highs were super high. Does that even make sense? LOL oh well, all that means is that I’m really looking forward to 2019 and all that it’s going to bring. I have blog posts scheduled to go out for while I’m gone but if you’d like to keep up with our adventures, definitely follow me on instagram. I’ll post a lot of stories on there and maybe some pics along the way 🙂

That’s me on the airplane flying away from the cold. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/30th sec and ISO 100 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Speaking of Aruba….

For some reason when we flew back from Aruba we had a layover in Newark airport. I’m not sure how that happened but either way, I called window seat! This was my first time ever flying into New York or New Jersey. Usually when we go on the weekends, we’ll just drive. It’s so much easier and were not on anyone’s schedule. Were free as birds to come and go as we please.

As we were landing, I looked out the window and I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped. I was NOT expecting this view. It literally took my breath away. I love seeing familiar scenes from different points of views. So I grabbed my camera as fast as I could and started shooting.

It was in the middle of the day so the lighting wasn’t the best. The buildings looked kind of faded from the sunlight so I as I begun editing this image I thought that converting it into a black and white image would be better. What do you think? It totally reminds me of Jason Peterson’s work, who I love. He has definietly been my favorite black and white photographer and artist for the past few years now. So I was super happy with this when it all came together.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/640th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens handheld.

In other news, Andrew and I just got back from Norway last night. I’m spending the day working on my images and I can’t wait to share them with you! Norway has got to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I already want to go back to see more of the country, especially the Lofoten Islands and other places up north.

As you’re reading this, I’m on a plane to Aruba with my closest girlfriends! I can not waitttt to do nothing but lay out on the beach and get a tan. But you know that will only last for 30 minutes before I bust out with the GoPro! or even my drone.

I’m also really looking forward to seeing the flamingos! If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you’ll know how I feel about birds. But I feel like flamingos are kinda different. First of all, they’re pink <3 Plus I feel like they’re so slow moving that if they wanted to attack you, you have time to run away and I can’t imagine those stick legs being that fast. Which leads to my question… do flamingos fly? Either way, I love the combo of pink feathers with blue water. But I may be sticking with my new 70-200mm to capture it all. Can’t get too close now. LOL.

This image was taken earlier this year in San Diego. I thought it was appropriate since theres an airplane flying over palm trees. I captured it one day after Andrew and I left the Little Italy farmer’s market and needed to go somewhere to walk off all the food we just ate. We ended up by the marina. I think my favorite part about this image is the big open space on top. It make everything seem so small, especially the palm trees. There was only a quick moment to capture it and I’m glad I was able to pull it off 🙂

So if you’ve been to Aruba, let me know what’s fun. Places to go or places to eat.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/1000th of a second ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm zoom lens.