ANGELA B. PAN

A little while ago I met up with my friend, Birch to check out the christmas wreaths at Union Station for sunrise. Although this isn’t the best sunrise spot, I thought it would be interesting to see all the holiday decorations and I love just visiting Union Station. Maybe because it’s so transit, the same reasons why I love airports so much. There’s just so much hustle and bustle going on that there’s never really a dull moment. Plus I love the Christmas wreaths they hang outside the station. With so much going on, people everywhere, cars honking horns,  the wreaths and their lights always bring a smile to my face.

So after walking around the inside and outside of the station, Birch and I decided to walk along side of the building to see if we could find anything interesting going on. I’ve always loved how all the red taxis line up on the side of the train station just waiting for passengers. I knew there had to be something interesting here, I just had to wait for it. Then this lady walked passed with her red hat. It was perfect. It even goes with the H&M sign on the side of the building. I figured this in itself was festive with the lights and red colors.

But of course, no visit is complete to Union Station now that Magnolia Bakery is open. I had to stop by and get some banana pudding before we left. If you haven’t already, you gotta try it. Andrew and I used to go all the time when we’re in New York, but now that it’s in Washington, we can enjoy it whenever 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/125th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Andrew, Frankie, our cousins and I have officially made it to San Diego and were loving it. It’s so nice to be able to spend some winter days on the west coast. Before this we were in Joshua Tree National Park and it was so nice but our trip was way too short. But I’m glad we even got to go at all. It has always been one of those places that I try my best to visit, but every time the opportunity came up, there was so reason why we couldn’t go. So I’m glad we finally made it.

This image was taken last year around this time in La Jolla. I seriously could spend all day photographing and watching these Sea Lions. It’s one of my favorite things about visiting San Diego. It’s just so peaceful and a sight you would never see in Washington. This little guy was definietly hamming it up for the camera.

I’ve heard seeing the sea lions can really be a hit or miss. I’m lucky (knock on wood) that I’ve never not seen them. This image was taken at the La Jolla Cove. Every time I’ve seen them, they have been there or at Children’s Pool just in case you are planning your own visit.

I remember taking this image and purposely tried to shoot at a low perspective. I really wanted to at least get this little guy’s face in the reflection. You can see I got maybe a little bit of his mouth and that’s it. LOL. It’s ok though, I’m sure there will be plenty more opportunities on this trip to try to capture what I have envisioned.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/200th sec and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm zoom lens.

Hope you enjoyed the last two blog posts where I relieved some of my favorite moments of 2018. If you missed it, you can see them here and here. There were just so many images to choose from because I tend to like all my images LOL. but for some reason this one didn’t make the cut.

This evening at the US Capitol was pretty epic. There was barely any rain but the lightning strikes were going crazy. It was perfect. The only reason why it didn’t make the 2018 favorites just because I wasn’t able to capture the lightning strikes like how I’d hoped for. I was really hoping for a huge strike like this one I captured in 2016. Man, I think capturing that image has sort of made me a bit jaded from all the other lightning strikes I’ve been able to capture. Like this one is cool and all but… LOL.

But I do really like this image because of the composition. Those clouds were epic and I loved the way the sky turned from dark blue to purple when the lightning would hit. Just showing that little bit of of the US Capitol dome is all the information you need to know exactly where you’re standing. It was beautiful night and I was so lucky to even capture anything at all.

So let me know, were there images that you liked in 2018 that weren’t on my list? I’d be really interested in hearing your opinion.

Either way, I’m so looking forward to 2019! It’s going to be a fantastic year with hopefully a lot more photo opportunities like this one to capture that huge lightning strike I’ve been looking out for.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/13th sec at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019! WOW. Not to total ignore 2019 but everytime I think 2019, I can’t help but think 2020 is just around the corner and that is just bananas to me. Like can you imagine people saying that they were born in 2020? The number is just crazy to me. P.S. Where are the flying cars at?

Anyways…

Much like my top travel images of 2018, I like to reminisce and look back on my favorite images from Washington DC from the past year. It makes me feel so fortunate to live in the Nation’s Capital. I love being able to hop in my car and within minutes be among some of the most recognizable and loved landmarks in the world. I feel extremely blessed and look forward to another year of capturing more images.

Click on each image to read the original blog post but I’ll try to add some additional light on these images now that I’ve sat on them for a while. In no particular order except chronological, here are my favorite images of 2018.

This day was definietly a highlight of the winter season. I remember we had some crazy foggy mornings but on this particular day, the fog happened in the middle of the day. Oh yea, it was raining too. Luckily, it was on a Sunday and I didn’t have much else going on. So what better way than to walk around the National Mall than with my friend, Birch. I still love how everything lines up in this image, even the little reflection you see in the puddle behind the lady is so interesting to see.

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THE FINAL COUNTDOWN 

It’s the last day of 2018 and I thought it would be fun to look back on the past year and relive some of my favorite travel moments from the year. It’s interesting because I do something similar to this every year and every year my favorite images are almost always different from others. I try not to let emotions play into the selection but it can be difficult. You’ll see what I mean 🙂

I had a fantastic year of travel and so blessed to be able to experience everything that I did. I’m lucky enough to have visited the Europe, Caribbean and of course different parts of America. So let me know what you think. Click on each image to read the original blog post:

One of my very first drone images from San Diego. Taken around this time last year, I loved being in Southern California in the winter time. I got my drone at the end of 2017 so I was just practicing flying when I took this image. I really didn’t think much of it until I saw that bird fly below close to the water. With the placement of where I’m sitting and that bird, I love how everything lines up. Definitely expect more drone images from me in 2019. I’m hooked!

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Happy Friday! I’m so excited for the weekend because Andrew, Frankie and I along with our cousins will be traveling to southern California to spend the first few days of the new year on the west coast. I am loving how this is becoming our annual tradition. As you may know, I love California. There’s just something about the atmosphere that is so chill and relaxing. I can’t think of a better way to ring in the new year. Plus it’s going to be considerably warmer there. *Praise hands emoji*

The first part of the trip will be spent in Joshua Tree National Park. We got this cute airbnb that has a really nice yard. I know Frankie will love it. Please let me know if you have been and have any recommendations for what to do there. It will be all of ours first time in the park and really looking forward to some fresh air.

The rest of the time will be spent in San Diego. I plan on capturing all the sunrises and sunsets I can but also catching up with friends that we haven’t seen in a year. Since our trip last year, I have definitely learned the types of images that I want to capture while in SoCal. I’m so looking forward to exploring even more.

Honestly, 2018 was one of the best years ever. Of course there were some lows but the highs were super high. Does that even make sense? LOL oh well, all that means is that I’m really looking forward to 2019 and all that it’s going to bring. I have blog posts scheduled to go out for while I’m gone but if you’d like to keep up with our adventures, definitely follow me on instagram. I’ll post a lot of stories on there and maybe some pics along the way 🙂

That’s me on the airplane flying away from the cold. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/30th sec and ISO 100 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.