ANGELA B. PAN

This is a portrait of my friend, Albert from one of Artechouse’s installations earlier this summer. I love it because of the cool lights in the background, the color, the mood but my favorite part of this image is because it is of Albert.

I’ve known him from a few years now and have been following him on instagram even longer than that. But it hasn’t been until the past year where I have really gotten to know him. We’ve spent some beautiful mornings together taking pictures and have spent some amazing evenings together talking and laughing. We have a lot of things in common, one of the main things being photography but he just inspires me so much every time we get together. I am always amazed by his images but what I love most about him is that he is not afraid to be himself. I mean look at this!

But because of him, my interest in street photography and portraiture has grown so much. Even when I’m standing right next to him, he can see things that just pass me by. He has taught me to be more patient, not care what anyone else thinks and I appreciate him so much for that.

To be honest, I don’t think he reads my blog or will ever know that I’m writing this about him. But I just would like him to know how much he inspires me to be me and how much I value his friendship. Thank you, Pootie! Hope we can get together soon after I get back from California to catch up and take more pics <3

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/500th of a second at ISO 5000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens. Have I mentioned how much I love this camera in low light situations?

As you’re reading this, I’m traveling from San Francisco to Palo Alto today to hang out with my cousins. I’m really looking forward to seeing them and catching up. It is also the beginning of family time for the rest of this trip.

I spent the weekend to myself in San Francisco. I’m glad to have met up with photo friends along the way but for the most part I found myself wondering the city with just my camera. I’ve always heard that you should travel alone. It’s a great way to “discover” who you really are. But to be honest, I feel like I already have a good sense of who I am. It came to me when I was in college and really expanded from there. I’ve always been a really decisive person where I know I like or don’t like something after trying it for the first time. But  to be honest there has been something that I’ve been keeping in the back of my mind since the Focus on the Story International Photo Festival.

The first talk that I listened to at the festival was by Maggie Steber and I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt more inspired in my life. Among the things that she had talked about was having a personal photo project. Sure, me taking pictures of cherry blossoms and the Washington Monument are all things that I love to do but what is that one thing that really resonates with me? What is that one thing that I feel so much that is just dying to come out? I knew what this personal project had to be ever since Maggie’s talk but I think I’ve just been too scared to start.

I’m writing this blog post in advance but I’m also writing it as a reminder to myself. Angela- just start. It doesn’t have to be perfect right now. Just start by writing down your ideas. While you’re away from everything familiar to you, jump out of your comfort zone.

My camera settings for this image is F8.0 at 1/8th of a second at ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Wow! Remember this past winter I kept on saying that this year is the year of the fog. We had so many crazy foggy days and it was so awesome. On this day I was out with my friend, Birch and seriously walked the Mall with what seemed like hundreds of pictures. Every angle was a cool angle because the fog made everything look so different. It was difficult not to take a spooky looking picture.

But the weirdest part about this day was we captured this around 11a. So weird! I don’t know about you, but I usually associate fog with early mornings and then it fades away as the sun comes up. But this was pretty much in the middle of the day so I didn’t even need a tripod. It was fantastic!

Well, I’m hoping that fog follows me to the west coast because today I’m flying out to San Francisco. I’ve always wanted to capture the fog over the Golden Gate bridge and I heard that August is probably the best time to actually witness it. So please cross your fingers for me that the fog comes rolling in. *C’mon year of the fog!* I’ve already book marked some of the places where I want to photograph to capture it all. If you have any suggestions for me while I’m in San Francisco, please let me know! Photography or food spots are appreciated 🙂 I’ll just be in the bay area for the weekend and will be meeting up with my family early next week. I’m going a few days earlier just to take pictures around the city and hopefully meet up with some photo friends along the way 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 1/640th of a second at ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback on the questions I asked earlier this week. It was so great reading everyone’s emails and messages. I felt like I got to know you a little bit better.

If I had to come up with some quick conclusions, about 50% of you are photographers the others are just art lovers. Most of you want to see some more youtube videos and just about 100% of you have some kind of connection to Washington DC. A lot of you just like the stories behind my images and just a few would like to know a little bit more about my editing processes, composition, etc. More than anything, I’m just grateful some of you actually replied to my questions. It helped out a lot and will definietly help me come out more interesting content in the future. Muchas Gracias!

So considering the fact that you all like Washington DC so much, heres a picture of Utah! Lol JK. I was just looking through some my images from last year and stumbled upon this one. I loved our trip to Colorado and Utah last year. It was definietly one of our more memorable trips Andrew and I have had considering we almost died. Twice! This is one of the stories. One day I’ll tell the second one. Maybe… hahaha. And if you needed more of a visual, here’s the vlog.

It was so hot while we were in Utah. Even looking at this image makes me sweat and it almost did not happen. Andrew and I had woken up to take sunrise pictures and that went great but as soon as the sun came up we wanted to get out of there. We were driving in our air conditioned car when we noticed saw Park Avenue. We didn’t see it on our way in because it was dark but as soon as we saw it in the day time, with all the amazing shadows I just had to stop. I love the orange/red rock next to the clear blue sky.

My settings for this image is F11 at 1/160th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

This image reminds me of this song. No particular reason why but whenever I am feeling like I’m “on top of the world” Brandy immediately comes to mind. LOL and the music video used to be so ground breaking back in the day with the different camera angels. HAHA.

Anyways, this image is from top of Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I love the perspective because it almost seems like the people are just as large as the boulders. Believe me, those boulders are HUGE! And there I go again with the 3’s 🙂

The hike up to the summit is no joke though. I was pouring sweat the entire time. The east coast humidity didn’t help much either. I’m pretty sure those people were feeling it as well. But I’ve been getting private questions about how I find my hikes so I thought I’d address that here. Usually I’ll go by word of mouth and other people’s recommendations but if I’m looking into something totally new and different, then All Trails is definietly my go-to. It gives you all the information and more to prepare for your trip. My favorite part is when other hikers include images from their hikes so you can get a feel for what to expect.

All Trail labeled this hike hard and I would definietly agree. Our group had to stop a couple of times for water breaks but if you do this, I’d highly recommend brining more than just a little snack. Andrew and I both brought Vietnamese Báhn Mì Sandwiches and we were still hungry. So if you plan on hiking Old Rag, prepare for a long hike with amazing views on top!

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/1600th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.