ANGELA B. PAN

I saw the lady in Japanese pink komono. She was walking around with this weird looking umbrella and it immediately got my attention. I mean there is no way that umbrella can protect you from rain, sun or anything. It’s really just there for decoration right? What is she going doing with that? Then I noticed the man following behind her and it all made sense. So between the cherry blossom tree trunk I was watching (stalking) this group of people as they walked towards the Japanese Pagoda.

I usually like to mind my own business, especially when it comes to other people and their photoshoots but there was something about this one that I couldn’t ignore. Maybe it was the weird umbrella but it could have also been the perfect light and environment for this photoshoot. I mean how could you go wrong with such a pretty outfit during peak bloom of the cherry blossoms at sunrise? It was something I could not pass up.

My favorite part about this image is the out of focus cherry blossom branch right in the front of the image. I think it just creates so much more depth to the image that would have been difficult to communicate if it were in focus. I don’t know why but I love looking at that one branch. My second favorite part of this image is the photographer in the mid-squat. LOL. I know I’m guilty of this stance. Sometimes you just need to get a little bit lower to get the shot and he is doing it perfectly. LOL. I would love to see how that image turned out but I probably never will.

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/100th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Finallyyyy a sunny day at the Tidal Basin. So far this cherry blossom season has been very cloudy, grey, and windy. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer blue skies with my pink flowers. I think the color combination works so well together. So I was thrilled when we finally had clear skies and s-u-n.

This particular day I was not planning on being at the Tidal Basin, instead I parked my car along Ohio drive and I had every intention of staying on Ohio drive and shooting the cherry blossoms along the Potomac river. That quickly changed because I thought I saw some fog coming off the Tidal Basin and you know me and fog. It’s like a magnetic connection we have. I ran over to the basin and saw nothing. It was probably some kind of mirage or wishful thinking for some fog and cherry blossoms but either way, I’m glad I ended up there. Once the sun actually came up, the light hitting the blossoms was amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better lighting situation. I could have asked for a better battery situation because out of the 3 batteries I had with me, I only had enough charge for about 30 minutes of shooting 🙁 I was so upset when the first battery started flashing the warning because I knew I didn’t have much left on the other ones. How could I forget to charge them?

Luckily I was able to squeeze just a couple of images at the very end of the battery life and came up with this image. I love the sunburst peaking through the blossoms. I think the flowers underneath that are the ones that I look at the most. They look as if they’re glowing.

My camera settings for this image is F22 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

A little break from all the pink spring flowers for some yellow ones. I captured this image behind the George Mason Memorial. It’s a little hidden gem that’s so close to the Tidal Basin but I don’t know how many people actually know about it. It’s kind of an empty space and I believe there’s still construction going on in the very center of the memorial. Regardless, it’s a great way to escape the crowds of the Tidal Basin but still capture some beautiful flowers.

What originally caught my attention about this space were all the beautiful magnolia trees. You can see them sort of in the center layer at the edges of this image. But once I actually started composing, I liked the yellow flowers more. They were just so beautiful and whimsical. I love how there are even more yellow flowers in the center layer, in between the magnolia trees.

The whole time I was editing this image, I was thinking of my mom. Her favorite color is yellow and she loves gardening. She doesn’t grow flowers or anything but she has a full fledge garden in her backyard of all kinds of fruits and vegetables for the spring/summer. In fact, she’s had a garden in every house that we’ve lived in and I have so many memories with her in those gardens. Whether it’s picking the fruit and vegetables that I wanted to eat or her making me pull weeds and laying out the soil because I was eating her fruits and vegetables and I had to contribute in some way. We’ve spent a lot of time outdoors together and that may be one of the reasons why I love being outside so much. Interesting that I never put those two things together before…

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/250th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

Last October I had the amazing opportunity to speak to my high school’s photography class. Click here if you want to read the story. Like I said before, the best part was connecting to the students. Its amazing how creative and passionate these students were but there was one girl in particular who stood out to me. Her name is Sumaiya. At that time her proposal for 100 cameras had just been accepted and she was about to embark on this amazing journey of inspiring and motivating others through story telling. If you’re not familiar with 100 cameras, it’s a non profit organization that empowers underprivileged students to tell their own story through photography.

Sumaiya, being only a junior in high school and the youngest person ever to have their proposal accepted by 100 cameras, is bringing her amazing efforts to Dhaka, Bangladesh where there are countless amount of children who’s voices are not heard. Watch this youtube video that Sumaiya and her classmates created.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to travel with them to Bangladesh but I still wanted to help them spread the word. To be 100% honest, I have never met such motivated, talented and intelligent young adults ever as I have seen from this group from Snapshot Project Bangladesh. They are seriously dedicated to their mission among their school, extra curricular activities, and  other responsibilities. So the biggest shout out to them.

If you’re at all interested in helping them or learning more about Snapshot Project Bangladesh, please check out their go fund me page and consider a donation or if you have any additional questions, check out their website or please feel free to send me a message. I’ll be sure to pass it along to Sumaiya and the rest of the crew.

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/30th of a second and ISO 500 with my sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

If you haven’t noticed before, but this is my favorite puddle at the Tidal Basin as seen here and here. It is a little sad to say that statement because there really aren’t supposed to be puddles and this one is pretty much there all the time. But if I had to choose, it would be this one. It’s hard to miss, if you turn towards the left right when you get off the footbridge, just look down. You will see it. I love it so much because the trees around the puddle are so long that they stretch into the tidal basin and when you see the reflection from the puddle, it looks like this awesome tunnel of flowers.

Last week, before all the crazy wind and weather we were supposed to have, I made a last minute decision to head down to the Tidal Basin. It was a sunny day and I wasn’t sure if that would be my only opportunity to capture my favorite trees. So I went down to the puddle and didn’t have any plans or ideas in my mind, I was just going to let my camera do all the work. I crouched down and was just letting everyone pass by me. I loved the way this one turned out because the green Lime bike stood out so nicely in the pink flowers. But then my friend Frithjov is right there behind the bike! I didn’t even notice that was him until after I captured this image. A big hug happened afterwards followed by an interesting discussion about Japanese french fries and fried food. LOL. A great way to spend a cherry blossom morning 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/160th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm zoom lens.

Thanks to Destination DC for inviting me to their Cherry Blossom Instameet this past Friday. The meet up time was set for 7am but sunrise is around 6:45 so I decided to go a little bit early to try to capture some images before I saw my friends. I arrived at the National Mall around 6am and headed straight towards the monument. I have been keeping an eye on the to the cherry blossoms around there for a little while and they were looking pretty good. And like I said in my last post, I really want to try to go to different places to capture them than the Tidal Basin. Well the blossoms did not disappoint! Even in the middle of darkness, you can see how plumpy they were looking. Yes, plumpy is a word in my dictionary. LOL.

But I didn’t bring my tripod because I didn’t want to have to hold it for the instameet. So in order to capture this image I took my backpack off and placed it on the ground. I still had my 28-70mm in there so I used it as a way to prop up the camera to shoot up from the ground. Unfortunately I didn’t notice I placed my backpack on a big patch of dirt and for the  rest of the morning I had dirt all over my back. LOL it was dark! So don’t do that if you’re planning on using your own backpack as a tripod. LOL. This was my first attempt but also my favorite. I love how the cherry blossom trees balance each other but there’s so much space in between.

Thanks again to Destination DC and the National Cherry Blossom Festival for hosting the event. And a special shout out to Stellas Popkern for the delicious popcorn. The black truffle with sea salt was so different but so good.

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 2.5 seconds and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.