ANGELA B. PAN

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that Navin Sarma was one of my first ever photo friends…. ever.

I’m not sure how we found each other but it had to have been before instagram was even a thing. I even remember being kinda hesitant meeting up with him for the first time because I was just meeting some guy I met from the internet really early in the morning. And as usual, he was late.

But in the end, he has become one of my favorite people to go out to shoot with. It’s always been super casual and talking about the most random stuff. He was with me when I unintentionally captured my very first lightning shot! And the following year we sat on the hill by the Air Force Memorial and intentionally captured even more lightning shots like this one.

Last year he left the Washington DC area to move to California. We’ve stayed in touch so when I booked the trip to San Francisco, he was one of the first people to know about it. I definietly wanted to try to meet up and shoot again. So luckily it worked out that the first night we were in the Bay Area, Navin was able to pick Andrew and I up and take us to Marin Headlands. We noticed the fog approaching and thought a higher point of view would be really cool image  of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so great to see him again.

You can notice the fog a little bit above the Golden Gate Bridge but what I like most about this image is the light that hitting the top of the bridge. I love how it just pops. Betcha didn’t notice the sailboat in the water. I actually didn’t notice it at first either. HAHA

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/250th of a second at ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens handheld.

This was my very first time camping. And when I say camping, I mean real camping. No running water, no bathrooms, sleeping outside in the wilderness, as real as it’s going to get. To be honest, I was a little nervous. Sleeping on the ground never really interested me much, plus I hate getting mosquito bites.

Luckily we went with my sister-in-law’s family who had experience camping and they were super prepared. Like they brought burners so we had hot food for every meal, 2 water filtration systems, and even a shovel so we could dig poop holes. I KNOW RIGHT! WE HAD TO DIG HOLES TO POOP IN!!!! It was so the bears couldn’t smell us. I’m still so grateful Andrew came with us last minute on this trip. He shoveled all my poop holes. I just had to cover them when I was done with my business.

I also thought I’d be super uncomfortable not being able to shower for 2 nights. But in the end, the non-showering part wasn’t even that bad. LOL.

But every morning I woke up to views like this. No alarm clock needed. Just woke up with the sun woke up. And it was totally worth it. Would I go again? I dunnooooo. Maybe in a couple of years. The experience was great and all but it just made me appreciate a mattress so much more. Side note, the elevation was so high that there weren’t even any mosquitos 🙂 Double win!

I’m glad we did it though! Here’s a group shot of us right before we were about to hike back down the trail. We would spend nights sitting on this tree trunk talking and looking up at the stars, so I thought it was an appropriate place for us to take our last group shot.

My camera settings were F7.1 at 1/320th of a second at ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

While planning our trip to San Francisco, there were so many options of places to stay. A lot of really cute hotels and airbnbs that I could have chosen from but I ended up picking  an AirBNB in the Mission district. The reason why I chose to stay there as opposed to other places was because I really wanted to live more like a local. I figured there would be no better way to do that other than to live in the heart of the city.

What I mean by living like a local is just doing the things I would be doing at home, but in San Francisco. For example, Andrew and I were in the city for the weekend so we definietly wanted to check out some of the farmers markets, we also did a little errand shopping for last minute camping supplies and basically walked around different neighborhoods with no real plans. We purposely avoided some tourist locations since I had been there so many times or we knew it would be so crowded that it would not have been so enjoyable for either one of us.

Our location was perfect! It was easily accessible to so many great places in the San Francisco area but what I liked most about it was that there was plenty to see right in our own neighborhood. This image was taken from Bernal Heights Park, literally just a few blocks from our Airbnb. Andrew and I kinda got lost one day going to our burrito lunch spot and stumbled onto it. I kept it in the back of my mind for a “maybe this is something we could do later on” because the hill was STEEP and I was hungry.

It just so happened that our last full day in SF was foggy. I wanted to go somewhere we could try to get above the fog and hopefully capture some cool images so I suggested Bernal Heights. Although we couldn’t get above the fog, it was still really cool to see the views. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a gluteus maximus workout because GEEEZZZ! HAHAHA.

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/250th of a second at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

We spent 4 nights in Lake Tahoe, 2 nights were spent camping while the other 2 were in my sister-in-law’s sister’s cabin.  It was my first time going as an adult. I had been before when I was much younger. I don’t remember much about it except we went for a ski trip. To be honest I just remember sitting on bus coming home from skiing and being super hot in my snowsuit. That was pretty much it. So it was basically my first time visiting. And it was Andrew’s very first time visiting too!

Driving around the lake we were both so surprised how built on the area is. I guess I’m just used to Lake Anna where there’s not much around and you have to drive like 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store. As opposed to Lake Tahoe where there’s a Taco Bell right across the street!

On our last day in Tahoe, Andrew and I woke up around 4am to drive from North to South Tahoe. I wanted to catch the sunrise from Emerald Bay and I was really hoping the water was going to be that aqua blue that you see in the pictures on pinterest. Unfortunately I think it only turns that color in the afternoon time. Something about how the sun hits the water or something like that. Oh well, I still love how this turned out. Funny enough, everyday except the first day that we were in Tahoe was a cloudless sky. In the end, I think it worked for this image because it’s all about the simplicity and the contrasting colors. I also love the sailboats that are docked by the shore. So cute!

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/1000th of a second ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Like I’ve mentioned before, I have quiet a few family members that live in the Northern California area so I’ve been a few times. And when I booked this trip to San Francisco, I wanted to make it a little different. I didn’t want to go to all the tourist attractions (which I did end up going to a few, but not as many as I would have before) but I just wanted to walk around the different neighborhoods and get to know the local side of San Francisco.

But the only shot that I had planned and definitely wanted to capture was this one. Up until recently, I had never seen anything like it. I love how the Bay Bridge is framed by the tall buildings and whenever I look at it, it totally reminds me of rice-a-roni, the San Francisco treat! HAHAHA. Wasn’t there a picture similar to this on the cover? or something like that. I can’t just be making it up.

So if you ever are going to be in the Bay area and want to capture something similar, here are a few tips I learned from capturing it:

• This shot is located on California St and Stockton St (I think). I heard that going on a Sunday morning is the best time to capture it because it’s going to be far less crowded and you’ll have a better chance of getting a clear shot of a trolley. So this was taken on a Sunday morning. I didn’t actually attempt to go any other morning.
• Be patient. The website says the trolley runs every 6-15 minutes. If you asked me, it seems like longer. I think I only saw two trolleys while I was there for an hour. Maybe I was there a little too early but still….
• Bring a long lens. In order to capture this compressed look, a long zoom lens is ideal.
• Hopefully when you go there will be no cars because you have to stand in the middle of the street to capture it. I’d suggest bring a friend with you so they can lookout if a car is on the way. If not, have you camera settings ready to capture this real quick.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/400th of a second at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

SURVIVEDDDDDDDD! I survived my first ever experience in camping. It was actually better than expected but more about that later.

A few little updates from even before we left for our trip to California:

I originally booked the trip so that I could spend more time with family. I have cousins in Palo Alto and in-laws in Lake Tahoe. But before I met up with them, I wanted to spend a little time in San Francisco just photographing the city. I was going to go by myself when very last minute, Andrew decided to join me on this whole adventure. I was so happy! This trip would not have been the same without him. When I’m talking about last minute, I’m talking we booked his flight 4 days before we left for the trip so I’m glad it all worked out.

Also I received my repaired A7II the day before I left for the trip. But funny enough it was also the same day that I was to receive my Sony A7III from borrowlenses.com. In effort to keep things simple and easy, I decided to just receive the A7III and ship it right back to Borrow Lenses. I didn’t even touch it. I just feel more comfortable with my own camera and I didn’t want to fumble around with a camera for my trip. I wanted it to be as easy and light as possible. Glad to have you back, baby *kissy face*

Last but not least, I got some of the most exciting news ever. Click here if you didn’t read my blog post from Friday. I still can’t believe I have prints and postcards in the bookstores of the National Mall. Please someone come and pinch me to make sure this is real!

This image was taken one more from Baker Beach, San Francisco, California. It’s funny because it was not foggy during the sunrise but as the day went on, it got foggier and foggier. This image was probably taken around 7:30a. We stopped by Baker Beach on our way to the farmers market. Andrew’s obsessed with the fruit in California 🙂 So am I. My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/640th of a second at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.