ANGELA B. PAN

One crazy cold morning I met up with my friend, Albert to shoot the sunrise. I remember the day before I heard on the radio that we were expecting a lot of fog and obviously I got really excited and told Albert about it. The weather can be so finicky because I woke up the next morning to one of the clearest skies ever! I’m so sorry Albert I made you get out of bed so early in the morning! Plus it was crazy cold and windy. It was probably one of the shortest sunrise sessions I’ve ever had. 20 minutes and I was back in my car.

But as we were about to leave, I noticed the beautiful light that was coming from the front of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. I asked Albert to stand right at the light ray and I love the way that this turned out. It’s so simple with the little pop of “warm” light. But I think my favorite part is the overall cool-ness to the image. I love how blue and cold it feels because that’s exactly what it felt like being there. Remember how I was saying this is a composition I wanted to keep on working on? Click here to read my previous post about the MLK Jr Memorial. 

To be honest though it’s not exactly what I had intended from the original post. It’s a little bit closer to what I had in mind and I’m still very happy with it. I’m going to keep at it until I get it exactly how I envision it.

Did I mention it was crazy cold that morning? LOL.

The camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Like I said before, I showed up to the Women’s March pretty early last week. I live really close to a metro stop and I just remember the huge lines that were coming out of the metro last year for the walk. So this year, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have wait in any of those lines. But I arrived so early that I had time to walk around the Tidal Basin.

My original plan was just to check out what the ice looked like over the water but as I was approaching, I felt inspired to take pictures of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. The way that the sun was just above it, creating these shadows made it look so epic. This is the view from behind the memorial. I took similar shots from in front, but I just liked the way this one looked better. The way that its simplified to this one little opening is very interesting to me. I think I want to keep this image in mind and keep on working at it. I know I could make something really cool out of it on a beautiful sunrise day.

It being the day of the women’s march and just walking around the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial felt right. He has several famous quotes around the memorial but this one was perfect for the day, “Make a career of humanity, commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a great person of yourself, a great nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” Thank you so much for that Dr. King. I just got the chills.

The camera settings for this image is F22 at 1/200th of a second at ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and my 28-70mm lens.

You know, I photograph Washington DC a lot. LOL. A lot of the time it’s at sunrise. And lately there hasn’t been a real sunrise that has gotten me excited to shoot, except for this day! I woke up a little earlier than usual and made my way down to the National Mall. Driving in I knew it was going to be a real good one. It’s really hard to say how, but I can just tell by looking at the clouds. Needless to say, I was super hyped.

I knew right away that it was going to be a great photo day. I wanted to make sure that my feet kept on moving as I walked through the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I try my best to experiment with different compositions at the places I go to the most. I really don’t like going home with a SD card full of the same exact images. So the only way to prevent that from happening is to keep on moving. But something was calling me back to the Reflecting Pool. I knew it was going to be THE place to capture this amazing sky.

As soon as I turned the corner from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I stood in awe. It was AMAZING. My favorite is seeing the perfect cloud reflections in the water. In order to capture it all, I had to get real low. No tripod, just balanced my camera on the ground and hoping my winter shivers didn’t move the camera too much. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!

The settings for this image is F8 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

I have to tell you something.

I have been working on 2018 Dynamic DC Calendar for the past few weeks and it’s going to be so awesome. I don’t know why but I’m so excited about this one. Next year’s calendar is going to be better than ever. Pre-sale announcement will be coming out soon. If you’re planning on getting one, I’d suggest to get it at that time. There is only a limited amount and they usually go pretty quickly. (Especially since my parents always order a whole bunch. Thanks mom and dad!!!) So be on the look out for that and make some space on your wall. It’s gonna be outstanding!

Unfortunately, this image is not in the calendar this year. I tried my best to get a variety of sunrise/sunset images but also colorful ones, night sky ones, etc. But maybe next year….

I love this fountain. It so beautiful and whenever I’m driving by or stopped to take pictures, there’s hardly anyone around. I have no idea why. It seems like such a cute little park with beautiful landscaping and flowers that everyone would want to hangout at. It sort of reminds me of being in France. Do you feel like that? Anyways, the sculptor who designed this is also known for designing the Statue of Liberty. Isn’t that so cool? I could definietly seem some similarities between the two. In case you were interested, the designer’s name is Fréderic Auguste Bartholdi. The fountain used to be in Philadelphia but I’m glad it found it’s way to DC’s US Botanical Garden.

The settings for this image is F/9 for 30 seconds at ISO 50. My favorite part of the image is seeing all the little swirls the water creates. It’s so interesting to follow the pattern all around the image.

For some reason it has just occurred to me that summer is almost over. What?! Like didn’t it just start last week? I feel like I now have to pack all these summer activities in the next 3 weeks before fall comes. What about you? What are the things you have to do every summer? My idea of a good time is just being outdoors. Although this past month it seems like it’s been raining more than it has been sunny. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re going to have a real cold winter.

In effort to jam in as much as we can these last few weeks of summer, Andrew and I have booked another trip to go to New York City at the end of the month. He must have realized how fast summer was going too. HAHA. We’ll be staying for a few days which will be really different for us. We’re usually there for a weekend and we’re gone. This time, I’m really looking forward to taking my time in the city but I already know if Andrew’s involved there will definietly be massive amounts of eating amazing food. It’s usually his job to find the food. It’s my job to find the photo opportunities. So I want to go to the places that I’ve always wanted to go to visit but we were never able to cram into a weekend getaway. Like art museums or trying to find some amazing views from New York buildings like the top of the Empire State building or top of the One World Trade Center. So if you guys have any New York City recommendations, please let me know. We’ll be staying in Brooklyn this time and Frankie is coming with us too! Family filled fun <3

So the settings for this image was F7.1 at 1/200th of a second ISO 160.

It’s pretty rare to be able to get an image like this. I think it’s only possible at sunrise. With the glow of the morning peaking through the entrance and hardly anyone there, I feel lucky to live in the DC area and be able to do things like this.

In the image is my friend, Del. I met her and her husband, Matt a couple of years ago in San Francisco. We stayed in touch through social media so it was awesome when they sent me a message letting me know that they were going to be in town. We met up at sunrise in front of the reflecting pool and spent the next hour walking around the different memorials. I knew I had to take them inside the Lincoln Memorial. What other time do you get to have time alone with a President? Any other time of the day, this memorial is PACKED.

I also love how she adds scale to President Lincoln. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed something new I’ve been doing. I’ve been intentionally trying to add people into my images. Trying to break out of my comfort zone and trying new compositions. Most of the time the people look small, sometimes I put myself in the images, but nevertheless, it’s something that I’ve been really liking lately. It adds scale but also a human element that makes you feel like you’re in the picture with that person. Don’t worry though, I will still shoot “the silent landscapes” too. It’s just so hard to compare the two.

The exposure settings for this image is f/5.0 at 0.3 seconds at ISO 320 shot on a tripod. Luckily, Del was standing still long enough so that everything in the image is sharp.