ANGELA B. PAN

After taking the image from yesterday’s post, I felt so inspired to take more pictures of the World War II memorial. I think I just realized how much I missed the memorial. So the next day, Andrew and I ended up going out. He wanted to get out of the house so I suggested taking pictures (obviously). We headed to DC around sunset time and just chilled out by the World War II memorial.

I had no idea what I was going to capture here, so I ended up walking around for a little bit when I saw this girl sitting on the bench. Is it just me, or did you just assume that the Memorials would not have electrical outlets? I mean, what? I saw this girl charging her phone and was so confused by it. But I was all for it since she was sitting there so beautifully in her bright pink outfit. She must have sat in that spot for a good 20 minutes. I tried all different compositions to capture her and this one was my favorite.

It’s inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Matt McClain. He works for the Washington Post and just consistently posts such amazing work. I’ve seen him post images of people by the water but the way he frames them is so creative. So while I was sitting by the fountain, I thought I’d give it a try.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/250th sec and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Home from a quick trip to New York and I feel like it was just the thing I needed to get in to the holiday spirit.

Andrew and I tend to go to always go to New York around this time of year. The first reason being his birthday and he can choose anything in the whole city he wants to eat but the second is that it’s just a fun place to be in the month of December. I love seeing all the holiday decoration and there is just something about being in the Big Apple that makes me so happy. I was trying to describe it to my friend the other day when she told me she doesn’t like going to New York. I think the fact that there’s always something to do or something to see there, but there’s also so many people walking around the city that you’re just so anonymous and no one really cares. I also love how you can walk through a door and have an impression of let’s say a restaurant, but it’s totally different once you’re inside. Like it could look like this run down, little hole in the wall from the outside but inside the vibe can be completely fun and entertaining with the best food you’ve ever eaten in your entire life. You just never really know what you’re going to get when you’re in the city and I love that. It’s so different every time we go.

This image was taken while we were sitting on the subway waiting for it to depart from the stop. I just happened to have my camera on my lap when I noticed that girl perfectly in frame with the window. I loved how candid it was but I think my favorite part of the image is the actual reflection from the bars on the inside. I just think those extra lines really bring your attention to the girl and makes you wonder what she’s looking at on her phone.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/50th sec at ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

So now that you know that I’ve spent multiple evenings at the View of DC, you must have figured that I have quite a few images from this place now. LOL. This is the balcony. You can see how it’s enclosed by glass so reflections can be found everywhere! I loved it from the first moment I saw it.

This image was taken on the second day that I was was visiting the CEB building. The sunset was gorgeous and I was so happy to be on the balcony to witness it. I was the only one out there with this couple who were on the opposite side taking their own pictures of the view. At this time they were looking at the images they had just captured on the camera but I love the way they are still being affectionate towards each other. I had to stoop down low in order to capture this image so that the glass reflection looked almost as big as the side of the building on the right hand side.

In case you were wondering, the spaces in between the glass panes are pretty big. I was able to fit my entire lens through it, but it wasn’t big enough to turn it to the side. If I wanted to capture an image, it had to be straight on. However if you’re at the corner of the balcony, the spaces in between are a lot smaller. Just a little tip for you photographers who were thinking about visiting and hoping to capture images without the glass.

With this view, I know I’ll be back. I feel like there’s so much more to explore here with so many different angles.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/640th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

If you haven’t noticed before, but this is my favorite puddle at the Tidal Basin as seen here and here. It is a little sad to say that statement because there really aren’t supposed to be puddles and this one is pretty much there all the time. But if I had to choose, it would be this one. It’s hard to miss, if you turn towards the left right when you get off the footbridge, just look down. You will see it. I love it so much because the trees around the puddle are so long that they stretch into the tidal basin and when you see the reflection from the puddle, it looks like this awesome tunnel of flowers.

Last week, before all the crazy wind and weather we were supposed to have, I made a last minute decision to head down to the Tidal Basin. It was a sunny day and I wasn’t sure if that would be my only opportunity to capture my favorite trees. So I went down to the puddle and didn’t have any plans or ideas in my mind, I was just going to let my camera do all the work. I crouched down and was just letting everyone pass by me. I loved the way this one turned out because the green Lime bike stood out so nicely in the pink flowers. But then my friend Frithjov is right there behind the bike! I didn’t even notice that was him until after I captured this image. A big hug happened afterwards followed by an interesting discussion about Japanese french fries and fried food. LOL. A great way to spend a cherry blossom morning 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/160th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm zoom lens.

Another one from Saturday morning’s amazing sunrise.

I was walking up the Lincoln Memorial steps when I just had to turn around and appreciate the morning light. It felt so good on my back that I wanted to see what it looked like and I saw this scene. My favorite part of it all is the light that is shining right down the middle of the image.  My eye keeps going to the huge shadow it created of the guy walking down the steps. It looks like the shadow is as tall as the Washington Monument!

I don’t usually put a lot of sunbursts in to my images, but I do shoot them a lot. Sometimes I feel like they can be a bit overwhelming and may take away from the image. In this particular one, I think it works well. I think it helps create the mood of the light shining down on the reflecting pool and everyone walking around it. I also think it’s interesting how the light effects the people depending on where they stand. The people who are closest to the reflecting pool look so teeny tiny, I love all the layers in this image.

On a side note, how about all that rain and snow we got? Please magnolias. Please stay warm and intact. I’m not so worried about the cherry blossoms. I think they’ll be fine. A similar weather situation happened last year where we got ice and freezing temperatures right before they were about to bloom and they were fine, for the most part. In some ways it was kind of better because it deterred a lot of people from visiting the Tidal Basin. All good with me! But I’m not so sure about how well the magnolias will do since they’ve already started blooming 🙁

The settings for this image is F22 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm handheld.

Like I said yesterday, the fog that we had over the weekend was RIDICULOUS. And what was even weirder was the fact that it was raining while it was still so foggy out. I thought with the rain coming down that it will make the fog disappear. If you look closely at this image, you can even see the water droplets in the water. But no. At times it seemed like it got even foggier. We had a good 2 hours worth of this moody weather to photograph and I loved every minute of it. I was so excited to hear about it that I left the house without a jacket. Luckily I had a beanie in the car or else I would have been really out of luck. Thanks again to my my friend, Birch for telling me about it as it was happening.

I think my favorite part of this image is something I did unintentionally. If you look at the very right of the image there’s a tree bending like it’s trying to leave the image. I love how the person with the umbrella lines up directly with that tree trunk. I don’t know if anyone else wold notice it but I love that little detail that just accidentally happened.

Birch and I were talking about something unrelated to the scene that was happening in front of us but we were both shooting it at exactly the same time. As that person turned the corner, we stopped what we were doing and saying, looked at each other and said “that was awesome” like we both knew we got the shot! AHHH I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS!

My camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 1/400th of a second at ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and my 16-35mm wide angle lens handheld.