ANGELA B. PAN

So the cherry blossoms are not the only flowers that you will see by the Tidal Basin. Just to the other side of the Paddle Boat Parking lot will you find the Floral Library. It’s easy to walk right past it, but it’s one of my favorite places to be. I remember being a young girl and my mom would take us to the Tidal Basin to just take pictures in front of all the flowers. Photo evidence #1. LOL. Believe me, if you could see all the photos we have in our albums they all did not turn out as cute as this one did. HAHAHA

I took this image last year when they had some beautiful yellow daffodils. The Floral Library pretty much has something beautiful blooming all year around except for winter. My favorite way to capture these flowers is by getting down real low so that you are sitting in the grass and your camera is propped up. Basically it is resting on the dirt. The point is to get down that low to make it seem like the flowers are as big as the background and in this case, the Washington Monument. I love the play on perspective and it makes your viewer look at the image for a little bit longer so the can figure out what’s actually going on. But I think my favorite part of the image is that one daffodil facing the Washington Monument and it almost looks like it’s kissing it 🙂 Or is that just my imagination?

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens. Obviously this wasn’t taken with a tripod only because I can’t find one that will go that low. Do you guys have any recommendations?

I found this in my computer trash bin the other day. LOL. Sometimes I can be so dramatic. I have no idea why I threw it out. I think I can get frustrated by my own work sometimes and without thinking, I’ll immediately dismiss it. I also think it’s the time of day that I chose to edit this image too. It was late (and by late I mean 9pm) and I had nothing better to do so I decided to edit some images. I feel images never really turns out the way I want to that late at night. I don’t even know why I bother sometimes. So I tossed it. But looking back at it now, I kinda like it. I also remember shooting this and thinking that man purposely stood there because he saw me setting up the shot to get low and he just wanted his picture taken.

What about you? Do you have a most productive hour? Mine is definietly in the morning. Probably between 10a – 1p. I usually don’t even eat lunch until 2pm because I want to make sure I get everything done that I wanted to get done in that amount of time. In the afternoon is usually the time where I’ll do the mindless things- check emails, go to the grocery store, etc. Then my second wind will come back at around 5pm. Too much info? Ok, I’ll stop now.

My camera settings for this image was F8 at 1/50th of a second ISO 1000. Yes, 1000. I had to double check to make sure I was counting all the zeros correctly. I have no idea why my ISO was so high. The only reason I could come up with was that I must of bumped it up that during sunrise and forgot to change it back when the sun was actually up. I hope the rest of the images from this day wasn’t that high.

What’s crazy about Rock Creek Park is that you can’t believe this place is actually in DC. Growing up, I always thought it was dangerous. I think it’s because anytime you saw anyone going to Rock Creek Park in the movies it was always to do something bad. Like a dangerous drug deal or the exchange of some top secret government information (thanks House of Cards). To be honest, I’ve never felt like I was in danger while I was there. Its probably one of the most beautiful places you can be inside of the city. Obviously the best time to go is in the fall time but even in the middle of the hot, humid summer, you can find a some peace.

To take this image, I did not use a tripod. I just used my Ice 10 stop neutral density filter and balanced myself on some rocks in the middle of the stream. I then held my breath for as long as I could so I could create these streaks in the water. It’s super important to stay as still as you can while capturing these long exposures. If you move, then the image may turn out blurry. The water flows pretty fast so I didn’t have to wait long. I believe this is about a 10 second exposure.

Getting down low and changing my perspective really adds a lot of interest into these kinds of images. The streaks in the water turned out to be one of the most predominate parts of this image. It probably wouldn’t of been the same if I were higher and on a tripod. Another one of my favorite parts is the reflection of the trees. Love it.

By the way, when is House Cards coming back on? I can’t wait to see what happens with Claire.

*game show announcer voice* From the second tallest tower in the world. The view from the observation deck of the Tokyo Skytree. A gorgeous view of Japan and all its colorful buildings. *end scene*

Don’t you feel so small? Like the world is so big and theres so much going around you but you’re just this teeny tiny person trying to make it in the world. That’s what I feel like when I look at this image. And to add some additional perspective, see if you can find the couple amongst the trees.

Walking around the Washington Monument is a pretty cool. You can’t help to think about all that has happened in our country and knowing that the Washington Monument was here for all of it.