ANGELA B. PAN

So heres my image from Grand Central Terminal that I was talking about yesterday. I still think it’s craziness that I’ve never been there before. What a beautiful transit station. It kind of gives you that old world feeling with all the train markers. Everyone always talks about how beautiful the ceiling is but I thought it was funny how there were so many lost balloons up there. My favorite part was definietly the people watching. Its my favorite part about any airport, bus station or place like that. Everyone’s always so busy with their lives, somewhere they got to be. It’s just interesting watching the interaction of it all. Otherwise, there were so many other photographers there! It was pretty cool. You can definietly tell the guys on the left side of this image were taking a time-lapse. They were standing in the same position with their tripods for quite some time. But then there were people taking selfies and other people next to me who were taking similar pics.

I didn’t bring a tripod with me for this trip. It was going to be too much of a hassle considering I knew we weren’t going to be taking any sunrise or sunset pics. But standing here in Grand Central was the only time I wish I had one. Luckily, using the ledge for my long exposure  turned out great. My camera settings for this image were F/14 at 4 seconds ISO 100. I love the mixture of people on the go and people just standing there. This is what I mean by watching the interaction of so many different kinds of people all in one place and this wasn’t even the busiest time of day to be there. I think we took this around noon because right afterwards we went across the street for some pizza 😀

Home after a great trip to New York. Even after visiting the city a hundred times, each time feels like a brand new experience. Theres just so much to do and see. This time I went with my sister-in-law and my two nephews. The oldest one, Brennan mentioned he wanted to see Grand Central Terminal. We all thought it was a great idea since none of us had been there before. So we made our way over there and along the way, we stumbled upon the New York Public Library. Another place I’ve never seen or visited before!

I started out taking pictures of the exterior but then noticed a whole bunch of people walking in. They looked like tourists themselves with cameras and backpacks so I suggested we go in. I didn’t know it was an attraction all in itself and had no idea of what to expect. Man, the interior is so beautiful! I was blown away by the paintings on the ceiling and gold detailing. I feel like I just kept on looking up the whole time we were in there. It was also cool that they allowed photography. I just kept on snappin’ and snappin’ away. At one point, I think I went a little snap happy and didn’t notice that there was a rope you had to stand behind if you wanted to take pictures. I just kept on walking wherever I wanted and kept the pics flowing. So this image is actually from a point of view that I was not allowed to take. LOL Whoops. Sorry! (not sorry). When you see so much gorgeousness in one place, it’s difficult to pay attention to the rules.

Man if I lived in New York, I could totally see myself visiting this library often. I would get so many blog posts done. LOL. Talk about creative inspiration.

Man, why don’t people photograph this building more often? Actually, why don’t I photograph this building more often? Its so beautiful and right across the street from the US Capitol. It should be one of those places that people love to visit.

It’s crazy, I shot this image last fall but never got around to editing it. I think that happens a lot. I just get so carried away with shooting sometimes that I forget I have to spend more time sitting in front of a computer and edit them. I dont mind though because I like editing almost as much as I like shooting. I didn’t even remember that I shot this until a client of mine asked me for Supreme Court shots. I was like ‘I know I’ve been there before…’ LOL.

It’s kind of intimidating place to be there though. Theres ALWAYS security officers all around the grounds. You feel like you’re being watched with every move you make. Not like how it is at the US Capitol or any of the other memorials I usually visit where you can run around buck naked and no one would even care. JUST KIDDING. Don’t do that. Please don’t do that.

This was shot at f/7.1 1/25th of a second at ISO 250 with my 16-35mm handheld. The only way to get a shot like this is to shoot with a wide angle. I love the contrast between the columns and the sky. Luckily this was around the time of sunset so the sun was doing amazing things on the marble. I also like the natural leading lines the columns create.

Washington DC is so great for architecture and the Supreme Court is just one example of that. Hope to explore more in the city and find more interesting angles like this one.

Last week I said ‘goodbye’ to my friend, Navin. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that we’ll randomly meet up and shoot together. He was one of the first people I ever met in the DC photo community and it’s so crazy to think he won’t be here anymore. Our mutual friend, Joe threw him a little going away party and what do photographers do when they’re moving away? Obviously we get together and shoot one last sunset before heading off to get some drinks at a near by bar.

It was the perfect send off. All day we had crazy weather. I think I saw weather reports saying we had three tornados touch down in DC on that day. At some points it was even hailing. Luckily, when we met up the rain had stopped for a little bit. The clouds were racing above us and we were able to get some super moody shots. Then without any warning, it started to downpour. It wasn’t so bad because even through the downpour, there was still this amazing light that shined through the clouds that made everything illuminate and it was so beautiful.

This image was shot at F7.1 at 1/200th of a second ISO 400. Again, the clouds were pretty crazy and dark this day but I was super excited to get that one little clearing above the dome. Its my favorite part of this image because it looks like a little halo over the United States Capitol Building.

Its always fun shooting with people who have the same interests in photography as you. It was just a bonus that you ended up being a cool person as well. Best of luck in the Bay Area, Navin! Come back and visit and we’ll shoot again 🙂

Obviously, one of my favorite parts of spring time in Washington DC are the cherry blossoms and all the other trees that bloom flowers but I love the tulips too. They’re almost everywhere you go. All the memorials and monuments have tulips somewhere that you can use them as foreground. It just makes me feel so happy when I see them. These flowers in particular belong to the Floral Library that’s right at the Tidal Basin. Luckily they’re facing the Washington Monument and are perfect for a photoshoot. For example… LOLOL

Even at a young age, my mom would teach me to appreciate flowers. I don’t remember a time where we didn’t have a garden at our house. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t pose myself like that. It looks very similar to something my mom or grandma would make me do. I even have pictures of them posing me in different poses to prove that I was just there little doll to take pictures of. I’d think some people would be unhappy about that. I still love it. I think it’s so funny and it’s fun to see pictures of my grandma interacting with me. Plus, if I came up with my own pose, I’m pretty sure my tongue would of been out for this adorable moment in time. HAHAHA.

So for the first image, the camera settings were f7.1 at 1/60th of a second ISO 320. I bumped up my ISO a little more for this since it was a cloudy day but it was also fairly windy. I wanted the flowers to be still in this image so I tried my best to get my shutter faster without making it too noisy.

No clue what the settings were for the second image. I’m confident that it was shot on automatic camera though. Noob.

Shout out to my friend, Zack who had been texting me to meet up for sunset on this day. Although we were on two very different sides of the national mall shooting (I was by the reflecting pool and he was at the US Capitol), I would of never have gone out on this day if it weren’t for him. It’s funny because we were texting each other pictures of what we were seeing in the sky the entire time. Once the color actually broke through the clouds, it was dead silent between the both of us until it was all over. LOL.

So I was sitting by the reflecting pool, mostly concentrating on the sky. But it was awesome because these little kids came up next to me with crackers and were feeding the ducks. *note to self, always bring crackers when taking pictures* So my attention went from the sky to getting the ducks in the foreground of the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial. I got some pretty cool shots which I’ll post later. Next, I’m not sure what happened but I turned around to see that the sky behind had really blown up. I mean you usually see the sunset colors behind the Lincoln Memorial, but all the action was behind the Washington Monument right at the WWII Memorial. Luckily, I had some time to set up a shot. But it didn’t last long. I’m glad I was able to capture what I did.

Camera settings for this shot was F5 with a 15 second exposure at ISO500. I was using my Ice neutral density filter for this one so I was able to capture the saturated colors and any people who were in my way were blurred out. The only people you see were the ones who were standing there for longer than 15seconds.