ANGELA B. PAN

To be honest, I never had New Hampshire on my bucket list of places to travel. I’m not much of a winter sports girl and I honestly didn’t know what more the state had to offer. So when my wanderlust started kicking into high gear in the middle of August, I started researching places to go for the Autumn time. I know New England has some of the best foliage to offer in the country, so that is where I began my research.

The more I looked into it, the more it seemed like New Hampshire was the best place to go. About a 10-hour car ride (one way) can easily be divided into two relaxing days of travel. Plus, I know there would be some fun stops along the way. In general, we were looking to relax on this trip. We wanted to have some great views that were easily accessible from the road but also have fit in a hike or two throughout the day. Nothing too strenuous, but something that was good enough to build an appetite for  after the hike. After getting some great advice from fellow photographer, Patrick Koetzle, I was ready to hit the road.

Our entire trip revolved around spending 3 whole days in the White Mountains National Forest area the first week of October. At that time it seemed like we were right in the middle or towards the end of peak autumn color which was exactly what I was looking for. For the most part, the weather was beautiful. In the mid-50s with no humidity. But in the middle of our trip, it rained really hard and it got really cold and windy bringing the temps down to the 30s.

Lodging

Based on all my research about the White Mountain area, an overwhelming amount of people suggest staying in a town called, Lincoln. I did my best to find a suitable place to stay but even booking our trip 2 months in advance, our options were limited. We ended up finding a cottage in Twin Mountains. We brought our dog, Frankie so it was great to have our own little cottage with a fenced-in backyard. The location was right in between Franconia Notch and Crawford Notch, two of the places where we wanted to spend most of the time so the cottage was perfect for us.

So if you’re looking to stay somewhere centrally located with your own private kitchen and hot tub, I’d highly recommend staying with Sherry and Ron. They were amazingly welcoming and thoughtful hosts.

We did visit Lincoln one day around lunchtime. Since we were visiting during the Covid pandemic, a lot of the restaurants and stores seemed like they were closed. That just reinforced the idea that our decision to stay in Twin Mountains was the best option for us.

Franconia Notch

Driving around this area is so exciting. I remember telling Andrew on more than one occasion that he had to drive just so I could stare out the window. But I think my favorite was the Franconia Notch side. Maybe because it seemed like there was more color on that side but more than anything, I just really enjoyed the views.

Our first official hike was Artist’s Bluff for sunrise. Although it is only 1.5 miles long, the hike was strenuous being that it was just straight up the mountain then down the mountain. There were a few flat areas but not much. If I think about it, a majority of the hikes around the White Mountains area was like this. A great glute workout for sure! But it was absolutely worth the sweat.

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Being from the east coast, I love our annual getaways to the west. Sort of like how birds migrate to the south for winter, I like to migrate the west and soak up the California sun and surf. Plus any excuse for a fresh acai bowl, amirite?

To be honest though, San Diego is one of my favorite places to be. I love the vibe of the city, everyone is super friendly and there’s no shortage of things to do. You have the beach life but also a fun downtown area if the city is more of your scene. It’s all of that plus a super dog friendly city. Frankie loves taking his morning walks on the beach, you basically have to drag him off the sand.

This was our second year in a row visiting around the start of the new year, but I have visited many times in the past too. This will definietly not be our last time visiting so keep checking back as I update this guide.

So if you’re heading to San Diego, here are the best places to take pictures:

The Beaches

This past trip we stayed at this beautiful airbnb right at the tip of Mission Beach. It was the perfect place for us because we were able to enjoy the beach in a less crowded environment but still have views of the water.  (If you’ve never stayed at an airbnb, I highly recommend it. Especially if you’re going somewhere for an extended stay. It’s all the comforts of home while you travel.) Morning runs were peaceful on the boardwalk and Mission Bay was right behind us which made it fun to fly the drone for a satisfying perspective of land and water. But if we wanted to check out some of cool restaurants on Pacific Beach, we were just a 15 minute scooter ride away.

One of my favorite parts about Pacific Beach was standing at the end of Crystal Pier. The pier allowed for unique, overhead shots of the wave riders and definietly provided a lot of great photo opportunities. And you can usually find the bubble man around sunset. I love watching the huge bubbles fly in the air and can’t resist trying to pop some if they float in my direction. The kids love them too!

(left) view from Crystal Pier (right) bubble from the bubble man framing a palm tree

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I’ve spent that last few weeks or so getting ready for my next trip. And by getting ready I mean getting new photo gear! How else would you prepare for travel? HAHA!

My girlfriends and I will be leaving for a few relaxing days in the Caribbean next week and I can’t wait! It’s been so long since I’ve had a proper beach vacation. My legs are as pale as a ghost and I’m not even exaggerating. So knowing that I’ll be in the water a lot, I got my hands on a GoPro Hero 5! Shoutout to my friend, Larry for gifting me his. He wasn’t using his and I casually mentioned how I was in the market for a GoPro so the next time I saw him he hooked it up! I appreciate it so much, Larry.

Since then, I’ve purchased all kinds of mounts for the tiny camera. One for my backpack strap, one that floats in the water when you’re using it, and looking into a couple more. I love versatility you have with the camera. I used to have the original GoPro which has basically just turned into my brothers camera now. He’s really into cars and sometimes on the weekends will go driving on racetracks. He has borrowed it a few times over the years but the last time he borrowed it, I never bothered asking for it back. He was using it way more than I was so its his now.

PS If you haven’t seen this already, Frankenstein made a GoPro video a couple of years ago! LOL.

This image was taken at Leesylvania State Park in Prince William County, Virginia at sunrise. My camera settings were F8 at 0.3 seconds ISO 200 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 17-40mm wide angle lens.

Man, I really need to update my gear list. Note to self!

If I could go back anywhere in the US from our epic cross country road trip last year, it would have to be White Sands National Monument. Hands down, no questions asked. I need to spend more time in this place. We only had one night here. So we were able to shoot sunset and early morning. Park authorites were pretty strict about making sure that everyone left right as the sun was setting so I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked here. Plus they didn’t open at sunrise and I had to wait later in the day to get back in the next day. I didn’t go on any of the hikes or trails. We basically just parked our car, walked up to the highest sand dune and took a few pictures and sledded down the sand dunes. That was so much fun all on its on.

What first attracted me to visiting this place were all the beautiful lines that the wind created in the sand dunes. I thought they were so interesting and would be great for leading lines. But when I arrived, I quickly found out that you probably have to walk more than just the sand dune that was in front of your parking spot because those lines are probably covered by other people’s foot prints. LOL. To be honest, I photoshopped some of the footprints that are in this image because there are just sooo many of them. But the best part about this park is that shoes are pretty pointless. Unless you are wearing sneakers or something and plan on doing some serious hiking, it’s totally normal to be walking around barefoot. I love it!

My camera settings for this image is 1/40th of a second at F7.1 and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

If you haven’t checked it out already, I posted a new vlog on my youtube channel last week! Just a few clips of our trip to San Diego plus I added some of footage I captured from the drone. I’m having so much fun flying now and becoming a lot more comfortable with it. Over the weekend I flew a little bit with my cousin, Brian and he taught me how to take off and land from my hand! SOOO COOL! So if you haven’t checked out the video yet, click here to watch our trip to San Diego. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This image was taken on one of the many foggy mornings we had in SoCal. I will admit it was a little difficult to find compositions at times with all the fog and not being able to see too far ahead, but I love the way this one turned out. I think my favorite part is seeing the bird’s reflections in the sand. It’s so simple but I just can’t stop looking at it. The lines in the sand really help draw you in as well. I don’t know about you, but I always associate southern California with sunshine so it was interesting to see the other side of it. However next time I go, I would like some sun. This is the second time in the row when there was a whole bunch of fog. You’d think I was in San Francisco or something!

The settings for this image is F18 at 0.6 seconds with ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

PS I heard we’re expecting some snow this week in Washington, DC. plus the super moon! I’m really looking forward to going out and shooting this week. Good times ahead!