ANGELA B. PAN

First of all, I just wanted to say thank you sooooooo much to everyone who commented, left messages or called me yesterday. You all really know how to make me feel special. I had the best day with Andrew yesterday in New York. If you follow me on instagram, you may have seen a little bit of it on my stories. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I am just so happy right now.

And to completely flip the script, remember when this was like the worst day ever?! This past winter was so nice and mild. I really thought we were going to get away with no snow at all. But March hit, all the flowers started budding/blooming and BAMN winter snow storm Stella. I’m still shaking my head as I’m writing this.

Man, I was so worried that this snow storm was going to effect the cherry blossoms. I mean look at them in this picture! Don’t they look so sad and cold. I’d never seen anything like it at the Tidal Basin. But as my friend, Bob Marley would say “Don’t worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is going to be all right”. And it did! It ended up being the best cherry blossom season I had experienced! The weather was absolutely perfect after the storm went away and a lot more of the cherry blossoms survived than expected. And don’t get me started on that one day we had fog! Holy Crap! The best part was that since a lot of people thought the cherry blossoms weren’t going to make it, the tidal basin was definietly not as crowded. It was just so freeing! Ahh I’m so happy just thinking about it.

And I’m happy that it was my birthday.

I’m just happy all around. Thank you again! <3

Hey Hey Hey! Guess what today is?! It’s my birthday! Virgo baby! I’d be lying if I said I was one of those people who don’t make a big deal out of their birthdays because I DO! I love my birthday. What other time do you get to publicly declare how awesome you are without getting weird looks? Plus theres birthday cake. And I love birthday cake. Especially on a Tuesday. With extra frosting. And ice cream on the side 🙂 Hopefully there will be some french fries today too.

I’m also really proud of the fact that today is Michael Jackson’s birthday as well. Birthday twins! RIP. Two creative geniuses born on the same day. HAHA JK about me being a creative genius. See, I can say stuff like that because today is my birthday 🙂

Anyways… I took this shot a couple of years ago after a summer storm in the DC area. It was a crazy evening because the storm ended right around sunset. I wasn’t expecting much because I thought the sunset wouldn’t have had time to shine through but then the rainbow popped up. We were there just in time. The glow from the sun and the clouds made this an even more incredible scene. I just love the red/orangey hues contrasted with the blue skies. I feel lucky that I was able to even witness it, let alone photograph it. I just remember being really, really happy when it was all over. Just a few minutes later the storm clouds kept rolling in and another storm was hit the Marine Corps Memorial . I got wet but it was totally worth it. Nothing makes me happier than to see colorful skies like this.

My camera settings for this image was F/22 at 1 second ISO 64 on a tripod.

I had the pleasure of getting a sneak peak of the Freer and Sackler gallery before the reopening in early October. Shout out to IGDC for the amazing invite. It was so cool to see all the beginning stages of the museum. I say the beginning stages because it is currently under reconstruction and some of the exhibits had been taken down. So it was interesting to see the ‘before’.

You can’t tell from this image, but one of my favorite parts was all the natural lighting. The museum is shaped like a square with an inner courtyard in the middle. All the hallways have these amazing windows that lets you look out to the center. The coolest part is that it even housed peacocks at one point! I would have loved to see them. Hence, the peacock room! We got to see it with the windows opened which brought in this amazing light. I’ll have to share an image of it later. But if you get a chance to see the museum when it reopens, definietly check it out. It was very beautiful and all the gold gave me the chills.

One interesting fact that I will always remember is that though it is a predominately asian art museum (with a little bit of American sprinkled in), the architecture is Italian Palazzo. This was because Charles Freer, the museum’s designer stopped in Italy on his way to Asia. He was heavily influenced by the asian cultures but wanted to incorporate the Italian architecture. I think marrying these two cultures was such a unique idea. If you walk around the museum, make sure to be looking up as well. The ceilings and arches are beautiful!

It was my first time visiting this museum and as you can see, I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to visit again when it reopens. The image of the staircase was just a small detail but loved the texture and lines that it formed.

So excited it’s Friday! YES!  This weekend is going to be so fun. I get to spend it with some of my best girlfriends and then Andrew and I will be going to New York. We’ll be gone for most of the week next week and it seriously couldn’t have come at a better time. Time to refresh and enjoy the views 🙂 If you have any photo recommendations, let me know. I’d love to get on to some rooftops while we’re there.

But speaking of views, I love this one. I photograph DC a lot. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with new and original compositions. Either other people have done it before or I have. The key for me is to walk in different directions, in different environments, and go frequently. This is probably something I’ve captured before during cherry blossom season or something like that, but on this particular morning it was foggy. Taken just 20 minutes after this image, you can really see how drastically the sky changes. But with the fog and the green leaves on the trees, it looked completely different to me. It was very muted and so quite. I love that branch that looks like it’s slicing the Jefferson Memorial and it’s reflection in half. It’s probably my favorite part. At first I was unsure about the puddle on the sidewalk, if it was really necessary or if I even liked it. But the more I look at it, the more I felt like it tells the complete picture. It tells the whole story of what it was like being there. The entire morning I was dodging giant puddles like this all around the tidal basin.

My camera settings for this image was F/6.3 at 1/6th of a second and ISO 200 handheld.

So do you remember how last week I was saying how I needed to bring my macro lens out when its raining? I did it! It rained again and my very first stop was to go back to the US Botanical Gardens. Even though it was already closed and I wasn’t able to go inside, I was still able to walk around the front entrance. There were a couple of succulent display and they were already beautiful as is. But my favorite part was how the water droplets didn’t go inside the succulents or get soaked up by them, they were just floating on top. It was so beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such well formed water droplets as I had on these succulents. This is why I needed my macro lens. There was no way I would have been able to capture all these little details with just my wide angle or even zoom.

But to be honest, I still haven’t fully switched to sony lenses. I was still using my 100mm canon lens with my metabones adaptor. It definietly slowed down the process as I was trying to make sure everything that I wanted to be in focus was sharp but I don’t know if that’s necessary a bad thing. I took my time and was happy with the outcome. I haven’t shot macro in so long and I’m happy to be dusting it off again. Soon enough I’ll get a macro sony lens. If you have any recommendations, let me know!

The settings for this image was F9 at 1/80th of a second and ISO 800 handheld. It was still cloudy from the storm and getting that close up was difficult. I had to bump up my ISO to make sure the exposure was fast enough.

Do you have Amazon Prime? If you do, you definietly have to check out Shorebreak: The Clark Little Story. It was so inspiring.

First of all, I didn’t even know Clark Little had a amazon prime movie out so I was surprised to see it being suggested. Second of all, I’ve never heard Clark Little talk before. It was so fun to hear his Hawaiian accent. And then I had no idea what he was saying when he was talking to other locals in the film. HAHA so cool!

Last but not least, man those shorebreaks are REDONKULOUS! Yes, I’ve been following his work for years but seeing on video of what he has to go through to capture those images takes it to a whole new level. I remember when I first saw his photography, I was so blown away that I couldn’t stop looking at his work all night. I googled everything I could about Clark Little and was just so impressed from the very beginning. If you remember this youtube video I created, I mentioned how he inspired me. But seeing it from his point of view or even seeing it from above with all the drone footage, man I don’t even know. The whole movie was just so inspiring and beautiful. Even if you don’t like photography that much and you have an appreciate for just nature or anything beautiful, you have to watch it. Watch it, then come back to this blog post and tell me how much you loved it because I know you will!

So this image is not of the north shore where Clark takes his photos. It’s in Kauai. When we visited Oahu a couple of years ago, we were there during a surf competition. We tried to go but the beach was so packed and hardly any parking so we skipped it. But after watching that amazon prime movie, it makes me want to go back. Like now.