ANGELA B. PAN

Some of you may not know but I’ve been writing this blog since March 2010. It was then that I commited to posting a new image every monday-friday and I have not broke that commitment once. To be fair, sometimes the blog posts will go up a little bit later than others but they are always there!

However when I made that commitment, I never said anything about writing. I have never considered myself to be a person who can easily express their feelings or view point. I feel like I know what I mean in my head but when it comes to verbalizing it, it can be difficult. You know what I mean?

So if you read my blog in the early days, you would have seen my image and then one or two sentences max. I remember it was such a hassle and torture to even do that. But it was in January of 2017 where I commited to be more than just a photographer. I wanted to be more thoughtful and practice the art of writing. Thanks to my friend, Mel for the encouragement!  So I stepped up my game and have been consistently taking pictures and writing about them more thoughtfully for almost 2 years. I will say it was a struggle at first but the more I do it, the easier it gets. I even find myself looking forward to writing sometimes. I think it’s the sense of accomplishment that I feel after writing something I’m proud of. Don’t get me wrong though, some days are easier than others. For example, I wrote a book talk/speech for a photo club I presented at last week. It took me about 1 hour to write a speech that I loved so much. The icing on the cake was that people came up to me to tell me how inspired they were by it. I was on cloud 9 for the rest of the week!

I have a lot more to say on this topic so to be continued for tomorrow…. LOL

My camera settings for this image is F5 at 1/80th sec at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm ultra zoom on my gitzo tripod.

I need to start marking my calendars better because I feel like I’m always missing the moon phases. Last week there was an amazingly beautiful full moon rise and I found all about it on social media. It’s all good though because I would not have been able to capture it on the best day to see it but I still would have like to know. Lol.

My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail or something. So I went out the next morning way before sunrise to photograph the full moon setting and it was still so beautiful.

In my head I wanted to capture the moon in the corner of the Lincoln Memorial so I started off by the WWII Memorial. I figured the opposite end of the reflecting pool may be a good place to start and probably where I’d stand the entire time. After about 10 minutes I got bored so I started walking along the edge of the pool to see what if there was anything more to offer. The more I walked the more I realized all the compositions I was missing by just standing at the reflecting pool edge. I’ve learned my lesson though. Next time I want to photograph the moonset, I need to start at the Lincoln Memorial and move backwards.

This image was taken when I finally arrived at the Lincoln Memorial. As you can see, I was so close to it that it almost looks like the moon is almost ready to dip below the horizon. Had I started here earlier, then it would have probably been a little more interesting and something more of what I had in mind. Regardless, I still like it 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/500th sec at ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm ultra zoom lens.

The other day I went out on clear morning to go photograph the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial. The sunrise wasn’t great so I actually spent most of my time inside the Memorial. I love that time of day when the sun rises a little bit above the horizon and the whole memorial is glowing orange. It may only last 15-20 minutes but that whole time is seriously magical.

I brought this reflective prism with me so I thought I’d test it out and see what it looked like. It took a little while for me to figure out compositions I liked but overall I love the final look. So in order to capture something different I held the prism up to my lens, pretty much right next to it and kept turning it around and trying new things to come up with these. It definietly makes you see the Lincoln Memorial in a whole new perspective now. What do you think about them? What do you think about using props in your images in general? I don’t know if I have ever really been a big fan of them before but this prism is really making me think twice about it. It just adds an extra element of interest to a scene that has been photographed a million times.

Also, which one is your favorite?

My camera settings for all these images are the same. They were photographed at F5.6 1/50th sec at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Here’s something interesting. The other day I was having trouble sleeping so I started surfing the internet. One thing lead to another and I ran across this article from the Google blog. I’m a month late, but I thought this was interesting enough to share. Turns out google now can credit the creator of images in google image searches! This is such amazing news. I personally know that a lot of my images have been shared without proper credit on social media so I can only imagine where they have ended up.

Click here to read the google article.

Like, yes I did take that image of the Tidal Basin at sunrise. Thank you google for the image credit! LOL. This image was taken on the same day as this image and this image. Isn’t it amazing how much the sky can change in about 30 minutes? The image previously blogged were when I first arrived at the Tidal Basin however this one was taken when I was about to leave. The water level was still really high but the it was the cloud formations that really caught my eye at that time. By the time the sun came out, it turned all the clouds orange. An explosion of color like no other!

My camera settings for this image is F16 at 1/125th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

The other day my friend called me and said “I can’t believe you don’t weigh 1,000lbs”. I laughed and asked why? Her reasoning was that she spent the last week telecommuting and working from home and she felt like she spent every hour on the hour in the kitchen. Each time she’d go in there, she’d find a snack or eat a full on meal which caused her to think she gained 10lbs working from home. All I could do was laugh even more and said, “you’re probably doing that because you’re procrastinating”. We laughed more about how much food she ate and it led me to think how lucky I am to be able to find a “work at home” balance. How many times have you had plans to work from home but wound up doing the laundry or cleaning your countertops because you were avoiding something? You can’t tell, but I’m raising both hands up in the air because it’s something I am constantly struggling with.

It has taken me years to figure out a schedule but no matter how much I think I’ve figured it out- when I’m most productive or what works best for me, it is a constant change. Something that worked for me last month, may not work for me today.

So here are a few tips I’ve come up with for those of you who work from home and still want to be productive:

• Set a schedule and stick to it like a regular office job. Just like showing up to a job at 9am, you gotta keep to maintain that same mindset. Working from home is great because sometimes you can create the schedule with what works best for you, but you have to be honest with yourself. I used to think I was most productive in the mornings, but more recently I’ve found new inspiration in working in the evenings. So with that said, I will schedule my days to have my most creative times at night and do all the busy work like replying to emails and client work during the day.
• Change your environment. Sometimes it feels like you are trapped in your house. You spend every waking moment in the house and it’s so difficult to get out in to the real world, especially when it’s cold outside. To break that up, I’ve actually been going to coffee shops to get things done. There’s something about seeing other people work on their computers that motivates me to work on mine. I’ve found myself more focused on my task. Whether it’s preparing blog posts or catching up on photography tutorials, I love getting out of the house with the intention of getting work done. Usually I’ll just leave in the morning and get as much done as I can until I start feeling hungry. I’ll go home eat lunch, reset, and will be eager to get back to where I left off at home. Even if you can’t leave your house, just changing rooms like working from the dining room instead of your desk can cause a major positive shift in workflow.
• Take breaks. This is where I express my gratitude to Frankenstein. Having a dog has taught me and forced me to take breaks. Whether it’s for a short walk for him to go to the bathroom or a quick belly rub session, Frankie has taught me the importance of walking away from the computer to take a quick breather. These little breaks always put a smile on my face. Even when you really don’t want to, taking these quick breaks has taught me to refocus on what is important and how to prioritize my time more efficiently. I think if it weren’t for him, burn out could come way more easily and frequently.

Those are just a few tips. Don’t worry, I have plenty more. Let me know if you’re interested and I can definietly make this a series.

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1.6sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens. It was taken during a full moon rising behind the US Capitol.

I’m still on the hunt for some fall colors in the Washington DC area but every time I walk out of the house it’s been a little disappointing. It’s so green still! According to this map by Vox, we should be peaking this week. I don’t see that happening anytime soon so I went to the local authority on this topic, Capital Weather Gang. Good news: CWG says that we’re still a week or two away, but I’m ready now. Hopefully that’s true and we get some nice colors soon.

So to prepare for the color change, I started brainstorming a list of places to go to photograph the fall colors in the Washington DC area and wanted to share it with you. Let me know if I’ve missed anything or if you have any other ideas. I want to keep this list growing to have it for future reference:

• Rock Creek Park: boulder bridge
• Great Falls Park/ Scotts Run Park
• Shenandoah Skyline drive
• Arlington National Cemetery
• National Arboretum 
• Dumbarton Oaks
• Manassas Battlefields 
• Constitution Gardens
• Tidal Basin
• Harpers Ferry

I actually wrote a guide to Autumn in DC a couple of years ago. Looks like this needs some major updating. I’ll be sure to do so soon!

But how great would it be if these weeping willow trees changed color? I think that would be amazingly beautiful! I captured this image last week when I was super early for sunrise. I met up with my friend, Zack and we were on the hunt to find cool places to go to capture the change. These particular trees are in Constitution Gardens and it has always been a favorite. Although the willow trees don’t change color, the trees surrounding the pond do. It’s the perfect place to go for a little bit of quiet in a busy city.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/125th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.