ANGELA B. PAN

We’re forecasted to get some snow this weekend! I’m not going to be a naysayer this time and say it won’t happen because I really hope it does! This time I’m hoping for a significant amount of snow. LOL. *crosses fingers for manifestation*

Throwback to last week when it did snow. It was only a little bit and it didn’t even stick for more than 24 hours but I’m so glad it at least stayed for a beautiful sunrise. I was in Manassas, Virginia. I really wanted to fly my drone for a bit to see what I could capture. But when I saw the pinks in the sky start to show up, my drone started running out of battery. It was ok because I just landed it for a little bit and pulled out my Sony camera to shoot some landscape images. After capturing a few images with my regular camera, I changed the battery on my drone and went straight back up. In the end, it all worked out.

My camera settings for this image are F7.1 at 1/500th sec and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

The best part about fall colors is that they are everywhere. You don’t really have to go far to enjoy them. Often times taking pictures around your neighborhood is just as good as going to Shenandoah National Park or anything like that. For example, Andrew and I spent some time in Manassas, VA over the weekend. Obviously Frankie had to come with us so we had a little mini photoshoot in the woods.

Now when most people think Manassas, they naturally think of the battlefields. But this was across the street from there. It was a great place to go with a whole bunch of trees. Plus Frankie is so photogenic, how could you go wrong 😉 In order to capture this, I had to take the stick he was chewing on out of his mouth and dangled it in front of my camera for him to look like he was looking at it. I was shooting on continuous and sort of hoped for the best. So when I first saw this image on my computer, I couldn’t help but smile.

Immediately all the captions started running through my head. For example…

• ‘When they ask you if you want fries with that’
• ‘When someone brings pizza to the party’
• ‘When you’re sharing an ice cream cone and can’t wait for your next turn’

You get the idea. LOL.

Besides my furry model, I really enjoy looking at the shadows of this image. It was taken around noon so the shadows were extra long as the sun was right above us. I purposely had Frankie stand in the middle of two trees to help frame him and to make the image just a little more interesting to look at.

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/640th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Normally I’m behind the camera. It’s where I feel the most comfortable and let’s be honest, the results are usually a whole lot better when I’m back there. LOL. But this time I could not resist stepping in front and throwing some leaves around. Especially when the fall colors are this amazing, how could you not? They’re gorgeoussss.

I took this in Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia. A great place to go when you want to capture some great open spaces. Obviously, this is not an open space.  I wasn’t even intending on taking an image like this when I arrived. I sort of did the same thing as I do when I’m in Washington, DC. I park my car and go. Either way, I think it still worked out, no?

My camera settings for this image is F3.5 at 1/40th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens. I had my camera on my tripod and set it on a 10 second timer in order to put myself in the image. It was a scramble to get in front of the lens and pick up a whole bunch of leaves to throw in the air in 10 seconds. It was fun scramble though. Wait, I just realized, does this mean I took a selfie? HAHA

On a totally different note, if you’re in the DC area, it will be worth your time to check out DC PhotoWeek that’s going on right now. I had the opportunity to check out some photo talks and the best of IGDC exhibit over the weekend and both were so great. I learned a lot and got to see some amazing images. There’s A LOT going on this week so take the time out to check it out. So worth it, trust me!

The perfect reason to wake up in the morning. No excuses, just pure beauty.

Followed these storm clouds up until sunset. You can still kinda see the rain if you look into the horizon where there’s color. It definietly helps set the mood.

So glad I’m home for all the leaves on trees to be changing. Something about it makes me so happy. I think it reminds me of my mom. You can’t go on a walk with her without her stopping every few steps to look at flowers or fruits growing from a tree. Now that I think of it, people can probably say the same thing about me and taking pictures. HAHA.

And here’s a super awesome photo of me throwing leaves in the air from the same spot 🙂