ANGELA B. PAN

I have gotten to the point that when I go out to photograph the sunrise in Washington DC, there will be times that I won’t even pull out my camera. It doesn’t happen often, but most of the time it’s because I don’t see anything that I haven’t photographed before or the light isn’t the way I want it so I save the composition idea for another day. Either way, I don’t get mad about it. I just think it happens sometimes.

This day was shaping out to be one of those days. I had watched the sunrise at the Tidal Basin but there were no clouds in the sky and nothing that really made it a particularly interesting morning. It wasn’t until this Great Blue Heron flew by until I felt inspired to actually pull out my camera. He landed on the edge of the Tidal Basin and was staring down the fish in the water. I honestly don’t think he even knew I was there. I just kept on creeping on him closer and closer until I captured this shot! He had caught a few fish while I was trying to photograph him, but I was so surprised I actually captured this. It was perfect timing!

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/640th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.

I thought this image was interesting because it could be two different things. Either the light reflections on the ocean water or a whole bunch of fish swimming by. Obviously, it’s fish but I’m hoping it made you look a little deeper into the image to figure that out.

I was standing on top of this pier when I captured this image. I took that pier image in 2015 and to this day, it still looks the same. Either torn apart or never finished but easy to walk along the planks. Andrew and I noticed other people standing on the pier and saying something about a Baraccuda. Obviously, we jumped up from our beach chairs and I grabbed my camera to go check it out. We didn’t see a barracuda but saw all these fish swimming around the pier in what seemed like circles.

I loved how the sun was hitting them just right and made the water look so transparent. It was difficult to see exactly what I was capturing through my camera lens because the sun was so bright but I think it turned out cooler than expected.

Even though we didn’t see the barracuda, I did see a dolphin, a stingray, and possibly 2 nurse sharks just from the beach. So very cool if you ask me!

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/4000th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

This is a good story. Or at least I think it is.

So at any given moment you can catch one of these brown pelicans hanging out on a rock in the ocean. They’re pretty cool to look at since we have nothing like them in the DC metro area. So my friend Sue and I decided to just sit down, watch the pelican and relax for a little bit. We actually copied this idea from another couple who were sitting fairly close to the pelican. But once they got up to leave, the pelican started acting funny.

At first Sue and I did not know what was going on, but then saw that he was actually spitting up something on to the rock. He had stored a whole bunch of little fish in his lower bill. So I guess when he thought the coast was clear he felt freedom to start eating them.

That’s when the seagull came.

And it was literally a fight for the fish. It was hilarious. Especially with Sue’s commentary in the background while I was taking the pics. She would be like “uh oh, get your own fish” “oh no, it’s a battle!” “*gasp* he fell into the water”. HAHAHA I actually got some of it on video because I was recording parts of it for my youtube video (coming soon) and that’s the only reason why I remember what she said. But I could not stop laughing in the moment and watching it back on video. It was literally like watching the nature channel in real life.

I don’t remember exactly what happened afterwards, but I do know the seagull ended up flying away after a while.

End story. HAHAHA

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/1600the of a second at ISO 160 with my Sony a7II and 70-200mm lens.

In the past 48 hours, I’ve heard of at least 3 different people saying that they’re going to Japan in the spring. Obviously, my first reaction was to get insanely jealous and my second reaction is to think about all the delicious udon that they’re about to eat. Mmmmm udon.

So I decided to look back on our own trip from last year and I stumbled onto this image. I remember the exact moment I took it. Andrew and I had woken up early to make it to Tsukiji Fish Market. We tried for the 3a auction but even with the time difference and us waking up super early everyday, there was no way we were going to be able to make it THAT early. But we did make it there at around 6a. This fish market was bumpin’! I mean there were people everywhere you turned, they were all on these miniature stand up golf cart things zipping in and out of lanes, and gigantic fish EVERYWHERE. It was a seafood lover’s paradise.

Andrew, being the awesome yelp-per that he is, found the “best” sushi restaurant. It was really different than what I’m used to in the states. You stand outside and wait in this really long line. While you’re waiting in line, there’s a guy there who will take your order. It’s usually just pointing at pictures on this big billboard but luckily this guy also spoke pretty good english too. He told us that sushi in a sushi roll was for tourists and that we had to get a sushi bowl. He was totally right. Eating sushi from a bowl was a totally different experience. So it was the raw fish on top of a bowl of already seasoned rice. All the extras like wasabi, ginger, vegetables and everything were on a different plate on the side. Just the rice alone was so flavorful and delicious. But man, the whole meal was amazing. I never expected sushi to be that much better considering it’s not even cooked, but it was!

So this picture was after we stuffed our faces with fatty tuna, rice, and everything else. We went to Hamarikyu Gardens which was less than a mile away to walk off everything we had just ate. That little building in the middle of the water is a tea house. We were at the gardens so early that it wasn’t even opened yet. I bet it would of been a great place to have some hot tea though.

If you are one of those people who are going to Japan then this is for you.

I bet you didn’t know I’m a certified scuba diver. Yup! Andrew and I got certified right before we left for this trip. We had gone scuba diving a few times before this trip and every time we had to go through that introductory class and it’s always the same information plus it’s kinda boring. So we took the plunge and became certified!

I took these with my little canon point and shoot camera. I don’t even remember what it was called but I do remember getting the underwater housing from Amazon. It was this cute house that was mostly clear but had teal blue buttons all over 🙂