ANGELA B. PAN

Confused by what sights to see on your short visit to Washington DC?

There are so many monuments, memorials, and museums. Where do you even start?

If want to know the absolute best of the best things to see in Washington DC, keep on scrolling. This guide is for you!

I’ve lived in the Washington DC area my entire life and in that time I’ve gotten to know the city very well. It has changed so much in the past few years that it may be hard to keep up with all the new and fun things to see. Sometimes I even think it’s hard to keep up with all that is going on. There have been new museums, memorials and points of interest that would be fun for a solo traveler as well as families all at the same time.

So in this guide, I will share some highlights of my favorite sights as a Washington DC native and photographer.

My 7 Favorite Must-See Sights in Washington DC:

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This image was captured almost 2 years ago but it is still one of my favorite mornings in Washington DC. I remember it like it was yesterday. The day before we were supposed to get snow but ended up getting a few flurries. So I just assumed that the following morning weather was going to be a good sunrise. It ended up being too cloudy with no color, so pretty much two disappointments in a row.

But when the sun actually rose and started to shine the light down on to the National Mall, it warmed up the air so much that it actually started to get a little foggy. And somehow all that fog was got captured within this walking path in between the two rows of trees. As a result, the light was so warm and yellow and I couldn’t help but notice all the shadows the sun was creating as well.

It was honestly like walking through a dream. I had never seen this walking path like this before and ever since that day, I always find myself looking to see if it will happen again.

Plus I love how the trees at the end of the pathway form a little heart <3

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/320th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle.

Taken from the top of the parking garage, this image definitely took a lot of patience.

I made my way to Union Station for sunrise and figured the parking garage may be a good place to start the morning walk. It has such a great view of the US Capitol that it’s a stop I make pretty much every time I visit the train station.

As I was shooting, I kept on thinking about how there had to be another composition that hadn’t been done before. So I kept on walking around, each step getting further and further from the parking garage wall when I noticed the parking lights. I figured if anything, I could get repetition or something out of them, but when I put my camera up to my eye, I was surprised that the dome was peaking out too.

So I moved to a position where I could frame the dome with the lights and loved the way it turned out but it needed something else. There was too much empty space. So I was actually waiting for a bird or something to fly into the frame because like I said, it was early morning and the very top of the parking garage isn’t as busy as you would think it is. No way did I think someone was actually going to go all the way up to park when 15 minutes later, a car ACTUALLY PARKED! I was so excited. I was across the parking lot waiting for him to walk to the elevator. I felt a little stalker-ish but he put on his vest and went straight to the elevator and it turned out way better than I could have imagined. I love how perfectly everything lines up!

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/320th sec and ISO 1600 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

We had a couple of thunderstorm warnings last week but for some reason, none of them really came to be. I’m still on the hunt to capture a lightning strike this summer so I tried my best to get out there to try to capture the weather. But when the actual rain didn’t happen, I was fortunate enough to still be able to at least capture this beautiful sunset.

I love how the colors in the sky are in line with the trees and it just looks like a band of color stretched across the entire image. I will be honest and say that I got rid of some of the people on the left-hand side. Just one small group of people because they were wearing really bright clothes and it was distracting to see them in the dark trees. I wanted to make sure that the focus was entirely on the Lincoln Memorial and the amazing sunset.

Hopefully, the storm warnings we have this week will actually come to be.

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My camera settings for this image is F16 at 1/4th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.

If I’m ever in the mood to practice some street photography, I love visiting Union Station to do so. The architecture is stunning and there are always so many people on the go that it’s actually pretty easy to get a lot of candid shots.

Plus a Magnolia’s Bakery just opened there and their banana pudding has been on top of my dessert list for forever. OMG.

Back to the image. This image was taken when I was about to leave the train station. I had spent some time inside and out, just wandering the area looking for cool images. I was a little hesitant to photograph this area because it’s just been done so many times, but I thought I’d just try it out to see what I could get.

In order to capture this, I stood pretty far back. Like across the street and then some. The further back I got, the more the arches and lights were getting compressed and I just loved the way that it was looking in my camera. So I pointed it up a little bit to get mostly the architecture as opposed to the people and I love the way that it turned out. It sort of reminds me of those cartoon images you see of the inside of a whale’s throat. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/50th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

PS If you do go to Magnolia’s Bakery, tell them Angela sent you. It won’t mean anything but just tell ’em 😉

I captured this image while I was on my way to photograph this image.

This image of the Lincoln Memorial was taken first and I was so surprised when I saw it on the LCD screen. I was walking towards the reflecting pool when I thought it may be cool to see some grass blades as tall as the Lincoln Memorial. So I put my camera on the ground, tilted it a little bit up and this is what I came out with.

What I didn’t realize was all the morning dew that would turn into these cool little bokeh textures in the grass and somehow turned this image to look magical. In order to capture it, I had to focus the image on just Lincoln Memorial. It’s a shame I almost forgot about it. To be honest, I was more excited about the duck capture than this one on the day I captured them. But I love the way that this image turned out. I also love that little hint of purple coming, which you can really see in the duck image.

Just goes to show you never know what you’ll find unless you try 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1.6 sec and ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.