ANGELA B. PAN

This image was taken about 30 minutes after I captured this one. The sun came out and was hitting the trees very nicely. By this point, Andrew and I had driven around Emerald Bay so that we were facing west and the sun was just over my right shoulder.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Andrew and I woke up really early to capture this image. 4 am west coast time so about 7am east coast time which isn’t so bad if you put it in terms of time zones, however by this point we were already adjusted to the west coast time. When I told my family the night before what time Andrew and I were planning on waking up and to go take pictures, they seemed pretty shocked. To be honest, people in general are shocked when I tell them what time I wake up to go take pictures. If you had told college-age me that I would be waking up that early, I’d be shocked too. But at this point I’m used to it. And when we’re home, Andrew usually wakes up early too. I don’t make him wake up early with me when were traveling but he’s just a good supportive husband who wants to make sure I’ll be ok so he’ll come with me too <3

But it’s funny because soon after we came home from this trip, Andrew and I went to a conference to listen to Robert Herjavec (among other people) speak. He talked about how he’s an early riser just so he can get things done before he has to go to work. Everyone thought he was crazy too. But the funny part of it was when he said people would ask him, “but aren’t you tired?” And then Robert said, “of course I’m tired! But I gotta get it done!” LOL so true Robert, so true!

If you ever get the opportunity to see Robert speak, I’d highly recommend it. He was funny, entertaining and inspiring.

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/100th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

So remember how in May-ish I was so excited for lightning season? On the east coast, we can get some pretty crazy lightning storms in the summertime and the first one I captured this year was pretty cool. I had never seen a lightning strike sideways before. It has always been vertical. I’m not sure how it happened like that, maybe it was too cloudy or something like that? But either way I thought it was really cool.

But that wasn’t the whole image. THE SECRETS OUT! I cropped it. LOL. In that same exact image, I actually captured a second lightning strike. I thought it was really funny looking and really different because of how yellow it was. Even though it looked cool, I didn’t think it helped the image at all. I find it a bit distracting because it’s so bright. It’s kind of like two different storms going on at once. What do you think? Would you have left it in?

Anyways, I read somewhere that September is going to remain hot in the Washington area. Hopefully that will bring more opportunities for lightning. If not, it’s ok too. I’m looking forward to the change of season and everything that fall has to bring.

In order to capture this image, I was standing in between the columns of the Jefferson Memorial. The Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial are great places to go if you ever want to photograph lightning in the district. Its scenic with the perfect amount of shelter so you and your camera gear dont get wet. I don’t use any phone apps or anything to capture them. It’s all really just watch the lightning for a bit to figure out the pattern of lightning strikes and hope for the best.

My camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 0.3 seconds ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens on a tripod.

Happy Labor Day! Hope everyone is having a great long weekend. Now that Labor Day is almost over would it be inappropriate to start counting down the days until Fall? Although you can’t tell, I took this image in the fall time a couple of years back. The fog had taken over the valley so much that you can’t even see anything but the beautiful curves of the mountains. I love the almost monochromatic blues in this image. It makes it so abstract and different from other images of the national park. Really looking forward to going back this year when the leaves start changing. I love Shenandoah during that time of year.

Speaking of traveling, this time next week Andrew and I will be on our way to our next travel destination. It’s kind of overwhelming since we just got back from California and planned this trip so last minute but either way I know it will be a great time. To be completely honest, we still haven’t figured everything out yet. It’s a place that neither one of us have been to and it will definietly be an adventure. Can’t wait to tell you about it soon.

In the meantime, let me know if you have in fall plans. I’m already loving all the pumpkin spiced things in the grocery stores but I have to be honest, the halloween and christmas stuff seem to be a TADDDDD too early though. LOL.  But so far my only fall plan is that there is a photowalk in the works! It’s going to be great and so different from the ones I’ve done before. So keep the middle-ish/end of October free. It’s going to be a good one!

My camera settings for this image is F13 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 125 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens on a tripod.

Just a little break from the California images to wish you a Happy Labor Day weekend! I can’t believe it’s already here. It’s one of the last weekends this year to enjoy the warm temps and jump in the water. I probably won’t be doing that though. I am looking forward to attending my friend’s wedding. It’s my college roommate’s little brother’s wedding and I can’t believe he’s actually getting married. CRAZY how time flies. If you asked me, I still think he’s 15 years old begging us for rides to his friend’s house. It’s going to be a shock to see him standing in front of everyone with a suit on.

This image was taken earlier in the summer at Lake Anna in Louisa, Virginia. A storm was approaching but that didn’t stop anyone from getting into the water. This is my friend, Cheryl. We actually went to high school together but didn’t know each other at the time. It just so happens that many years later we ended up having friends that were friends with each other and so we reconnected. It was one of those moments when I first saw her I knew her face looked familiar but wasn’t sure how I knew her. LOL But I’m glad to know her now 🙂 She’s awesome, as you can see.

In order to capture this I sat at the very edge of the boat. My camera was right above the water and would get splashed here and there but never too wet. I just love the perspective and all the detail you see in the water. Maybe this is was part of the reason why I had to get my camera serviced… HAHAA. It was bound to happen. It just means I use my camera ALLLLL the time.

Happy weekend everyone!

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/640th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

We didn’t spend time at Donner Lake. Just a quick pull over to stretch our legs and check out the scene. At this point I was just excited to be out in nature.

The whole time we were there, this was the only really cloudy day that we got. It even rained a little bit which made slightly nervous about the idea of mosquitos waiting for us on top of the mountain but everything ended up being perfect.

By the way, thank you so much for all the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fantastic day of just doing whatever I wanted to do. Andrew and I went out to eat dinner and had the best seafood ever. This past weekend, I celebrated with my girlfriends and other than that my birthday has been real low key this year. I kinda almost forgot about it because we just got back from the west coast and as soon as I got back, I started preparing for our next trip. Our next trip is in less than two weeks and I can’t even tell you how excited I am for it. There will definietly be a lot more nature images coming your way.

This past year was one of the best ever. Never would have I imagined that I would write and publish a book, work with the Trust for the National Mall for the Ball for the Mall or even have my work in the gift stores at the National Mall. I was able to see my images in various publications and multiple business’ walls and everything is just so exciting. So thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way or even has taken the time out to view my images. I appreciate you!

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/320th of a second at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Like my last couple of trips, I wanted to work on my street photography. I just have so much fun with it and you never really know what you’re going to get.
Similar to the trips to Japan and this one to Aruba.

However going through my images, I found that I took a lot more architectural images than anything else. I thought it was interesting, but not surprising. There are so many hills in San Francisco and it made it slightly difficult to walk, but I really enjoyed the different perspectives you would get throughout the city. Whether you’re on top of a hill or on the bottom, nothing really looked the same one block to the next.

So here are a couple of images I took on the streets of San Francisco.

This was taken somewhere in the financial district and purposely left the words “Turkey. For the win” in. That’s for Andrew because he loves turkey. HAHA

Another POV from a crazy hill somewhere in the Mission District I think and I’m pretty sure I was on top of a hill looking down.

This person was taken their dog on a walk. I just love the different textures and framing this one image has. I was happy with it as soon as I snapped the pic.

There were so many people walking around the Financial District with these bags. I stalked them to find out that it was the American Psychological Association and not the American Photographers Association 🙁 Anyways that’s me in the shadow with my huge backpack on.

Thanks for checking out my images and I hoped you liked them. The very top image is very close to that California Street image I talked about last week. I just love that early morning light that’s on the buildings. Also, today’s my birthday! 🙂