ANGELA B. PAN

Just booked our next photo trip! It’s to somewhere I’ve never been before but have always wanted to go and I’m really excited to be going in the fall time. Drum roll…. we’re going to… Maine! More specifically Acadia National Park! I can’t wait! The furthest north I’ve ever been on the east coast is Boston. So I’m really looking forward to checking out New England more.

One of the main(e) reasons we chose Acadia National Park was because of this article. I’m hoping that it is correct! But it’s on the internet so it must be true, right? Oh and my friend, Andy visited Acadia last year and got some great images. I’m hoping for the same. You can see his video here. Blueberry pancakes here we comeeeee. Actually, I’m more excited about Lobster Rolls. Lobster Rolls here we comeeeee. I told my cousin, Brian that I was visiting Maine and he said that the McDonalds there has something called a McLobster. I dunno about that… getting seafood from a fast food restaurant seems kinda shady to me. I dunno we’ll have to see. I’m definietly down for the real thing though! So if you’ve been or you’re from that area, let me know. Good photo spots AND good food spots.

Even though we’ll be in Maine in the beginning of October, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be shooting when I’m home. Shenandoah National Park is my absolute favorite in the fall time and I’m really looking forward to more foggy mornings in the mountains like this image or this one… ok this is the last one.

The settings for this image is f/22 at 25 seconds ISO 100. I shot it early morning on the bottom of DC’s memorial bridge during rush hour traffic. I’m surprised I even got trail lines because it seemed like the cars were moving so slow. Hence the 25 second exposure!

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning on meeting a friend for a quick get together. Something informal but still fun. So when it came down to picking the place to meet, I chose the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art. For real, if you’re in the DC metro area and you need a good place to talk, I’d definietly recommend this place. We sat at the benches right around the water fountain under some shade and it was perfect. The meeting ended quickly and I still had time on my parking meter so I decided to walk around the National Gallery of Art for a little bit.

The East Wing has always been my favorite. It’s the modern art part of the gallery and every time I go, I fall more and more in love with this space. It is just so beautiful. The light that comes in through the glass roof in the middle of the day along with all the shadows they create are so amazing. Just every corner of this wing is spectacular.

It has come to the point where I come to the gallery so often that I never try to see it all at once. I’ll pick a floor and take my time there. Really soaking in everything the exhibit has to offer. Then I’ll probably go to the rooftop terrace if it’s a really nice day and then head home. I never feel rushed and it makes it feel brand new every time I visit if I see something new. Regardless, it’s always inspiring and a great way to spend an hour or so.

The settings for this image is F7/.1 at 1/125th of a second ISO 160. Obviously it was a nice and sunny day out so I was able to capture everything with a low ISO.

Let me know what you think about this image. Its really different from what I usually do but I still really like it and it was a total accident. I didn’t even know that I took this until the other day when I was looking for another image to edit.

So on the same foggy morning that I took this picture of the Washington Monument, I was out with my camera on my tripod shooting. Obviously. But I actually went to the tidal basin with the intentions of shooting the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. When I arrived, I saw that the fog was so amazing that I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. So in the series of images, this was the very last image I took right before I began shooting MLK JR. memorial. I know I was bracketing my shots because this was a long exposure and I’m assuming I just got impatient for the last shot to finish and just picked up my tripod. Pretty cool, huh?

My favorite part is how aligned everything is. I literally must have lifted the tripod up straight in the air for that to happen. I didn’t do much in processing either. I just added a little bit of contrast and that was it.It’s basically straight out of the camera. I also like how it’s kind of monotone grayish blue. What do you think. Should I try some more experimental long exposures? For some reason, it reminds me of this meme from SpongeBob SquarePants of Mr Krab. Like you just woke up from a really long nap and you don’t know what time it is, what day it is, or what is actually going on. LOL

My settings for this image was F/32 at 2 seconds ISO 50.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking our dog, Frankie on walks to different places in the city. This was taken on our second to last day. It was extra cloudy with a little bit of wind but so nice and comfortable to be outside. We made our way to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade but we parked our car just above it. What a cute little neighborhood. I’m sorry I don’t know the name but it looked just like the houses did in the Cosby Show. Wasn’t that based in Brooklyn too?

Anyways, it was Andrew and I’s goal to take pictures of Frankie with different landmarks behind him. So obviously, we had to take a picture of him with the Manhattan skyline in the back. He’s balancing on a bike share stand and looks thrilled, doesn’t he? HAHA He’s such a good boy but for some reason, he gets scared to jump off of things. Even when we’re home, he doesn’t like jumping off the couch or bed, so he has to be brought up onto furniture if he wants gets on it. That’s the only way he’s guaranteed a way down.He won’t jump up on his own. So we knew if we put him up on this bike stand, he would not jump. He’d just stand there for as long as we’d let him. LOL.

Whenever I look at this picture, I just smile. I’d love to take him on my trips. Don’t you think he’d look awesome next to the faces at Mount Rushmore. HAHAHA. Crazy dog mom? Maybe… But look at him. He loves it!

My settings for this image was F/5.6 at 1/320th of a second ISO 200. No tripod or anything. Just love.

Have a great weekend everyone! That week was short!

And this is the same place as Monday’s blog post, but looking down. How freaky is this view? Right?

I don’t know why, but I find myself trying to get a closer look in to all the windows and trying to see if I can see anyone else on these rooftops. Is that creepy? Yes, but I can’t help it. For some reason, this image just brings me in closer and closer to look at all the details. I love how some lights are on, some are off. You can even see some furniture and.. OK I’ll stop. But I think my favorite part is looking at the roof top fans. LOL. I guess I don’t see things like that everyday so they interest me even more so in this image. Just another crazy view of how busy New York City really is. How everyone’s lives are so different but all in the same little area. On the top left hand corner is a perfect view of times square. Congested with all the sparkling lights. And this image was taken on a random Tuesday night. Can you imagine what it’d be like on a Saturday night? Woah.

Funny story: this particular evening was super cloudy and dark. Rain was off and on and Andrew and I were in a taxi on our way to dinner. We drove right through times square and I was busy looking at my phone. All of the sudden it got really light and I was like ‘OMG the sun came out!” I was super excited because I dunno, I guess I like the sun. But when I looked up it was actually just the lights from times square! Isn’t that nuts! It’s so bright that I thought the sun came out. HAHA

The settings for this image was F7.1 for 0.4 seconds at ISO 800.

So weird that it’s Wednesday, right? I feel like long holidays always throw off my sense of days. Not that I’m complaining at all. I love them. I got to spend time with family and friends and there’s nothing better than that!

Saturday we had a lot of rain. It rained all day and was super gloomy. So in my head that meant that Sunday would have a good sunrise. Even though I was still in my ‘long holiday mode’, I still managed to wake up in time to catch the sunrise from the Lincoln Memorial. I was super lucky too. The sky only had a little hint of pink for a minute and then it was gone. The rest of the sunrise was cloudy and gloomy. But you know what’s funny? Around this time of year, I always see young people hanging out on the steps of the Lincoln. I can only assume that they just started collage and it’s the first time that they have complete freedom. So they stay up all night, doing who knows what, and then thinks its a great idea to watch the sunrise over the reflecting pool. They’re never rowdy or disruptive, but you can definietly tell that they’re struggling to stay awake. LOL. I’m sure I did similar things when I was in college. But hey, at least they’re taking the time to appreciate the new day 🙂 Which they’re probably going to just sleep through anyways. You can see what I mean on the bottom left, next to the column. You may not have noticed it, but there’s someone laying down there “appreciating the new day”.

My camera settings for this image was F13 at 8 seconds ISO 200 on a tripod. Luckily, this early in the morning, no one cares about about your tripod.