ANGELA B. PAN

I remember shooting this last year. I was driving home from shooting the storm at the Washington Monument and was a little disappointed with how my pictures came out. There wasn’t one that I was extremely happy with or excited to work on but the rain had cut my photoshoot short. Sometimes it happens even on the worst weather days. And then as soon as I got to my car and start driving, the rain stopped. So I started filtering all the places I could go shoot on my way home when finally I realized the US Marine Corps War Memorial was perfect!

I drove up to the memorial and NO ONE was there. It was amazing! Usually there are bus loads of people here. But the rain must of scared them all away. So taking all the liberties I could, I parked my car right in front of the memorial. Yes, right along the drive path. Whatevs- no one was there anyways. I was only going to be there for 10 minutes tops. I didn’t even close my driver side door because I was so excited by the clouds. So I started shooting, shooting, shooting. No tripod, all hand held. The storm clouds were so dramatic and amazing. I was so grateful for this little break in the rain. My favorite part is seeing that little reflection of Iwo Jima in the puddle. I had to squat down real low for this one which also helped in making the storm clouds look even bigger.

My camera settings for this image was F5.6 at 1/15th of a second at ISO 640. Shooting handheld with such dark, dramatic skies, you have to put your ISO high to avoid any kind of motion blur. I also bracketed these shots so I could later choose which one turned out the best.

Doesn’t it seem like the days are going by so quickly now a days? It seems like it was just yesterday that I was at the Holocaust Museum but it was actually 2 weeks ago. I guess what they say is true. Time flies when you’re having fun. And when I think of it even more, I can’t believe almost half the year is already gone! Nuts-o.

Anyways, this image was taken on that day we visited the Holocaust Museum. It was an architectural tour which I really enjoyed. It was just a whole new way of looking at the museum. So we got divided up into small groups and were lead around 4 different parts of the museum as we talked about how the architecture represented different parts of the Holocaust. This particular image was taken outside at the 14th street entrance. Even if you google mapped it, you can see there’s a slight curvature that comes out of the building. Although that’s very cool all on it’s own, I thought showing it in the window reflection was even cooler. A whole new way of looking at it. I can imagine this to be a neat way to frame things if the sky was really dramatic.

The lesson that I learned from this image is to take your time and really exam the space that you’re in. You’ll be surprised by what you may find. Thanks to my friend, Zack who helped me out with this. So in recent photoshoots, I’ve been really trying to practice that. Also practicing the art of being present. I’m really resisting the urge to look at my cell phone while I’m out shooting, especially if I’m out with other people. Being present and aware of your surroundings can only help improve your images and quality of life.

I’m really hoping this marks the beginning of storms here in DC. Summer is my favorite just because we can get some really dramatic skies and this past Monday was no exception. It was super hot over the weekend and finally a cold front came in bringing this storm that created the most amazing skies right at sunset. The storm itself was a little disappointing. We were expecting lightning and only saw a few really far away. But the clouds, the rainbow, the light soooo made up for it.

I met up with my friends Dave and Zack at the Lincoln Memorial. We figured that while it was raining, it’d be a great spot to take cover and still take pics at the same time. It was so fun running back and forth on the outer perimeter of the memorial. At first we were in the front capturing the dramatic skies. All of the sudden I turned around and saw this amazing glow coming from the back of the Lincoln. We ran back there to check it out and take pics. Then we get a message from Zack saying there was a rainbow at the monument. We ran over and started shooting that. It was so fun and exciting. I know we weren’t the only ones doing going back and forth. So many tourists were running along with us. LOL.

My camera settings for this image was F14 at 5 seconds and ISO 50. I chose to shoot this as a long exposure so I could blur out some of the people in the foreground. *What were they all doing there standing in the rain anyways? This was definietly shot on a tripod but somehow I left my remote at home 🙁 Oh well. There better be more storms in next few months.

Love summer storms. They just seem to be more dramatic than any other season. Am I right? Is it because of the warmer air? I don’t know but they’re awesome. Not to self: No white tshirts when out shooting dramatic clouds. That never ends well.