ANGELA B. PAN

At any given time, you could have found me with at least 2 different cameras while I was in Turks and Caicos. Since I was not able to swim or do much physical activity, I figured I’d spend my time laying around or capturing images. (Which is an amazing plan if you ask me). So I ended up bringing 4 different cameras on the trip, 5 if you count my iPhone.

1. Sony A7II
2. DJI Mavic Pro Drone
3. GoPro Hero 5 Black
4. Canon T70 film camera

It may have been a little excessive to have at least 2 cameras on me, but that was the only way I was able to capture everything I wanted without having to go back to our room to get a different camera. But during the day, I loved having the GoPro and Drone. Both of these cameras allow such different perspectives that I’m not used to when just shooting with my Sony.

But to be honest, I’m usually very cautious when flying my drone in front of a lot of people. I know a lot of people don’t like it. It can be noisy and a disturbance so I try my best to only fly when there aren’t as many people around. One morning, Andrew and I woke up early just to fly the drone. It was great because at 6 am we were the only ones on the beach. I was free to fly wherever I wanted. But I do like images with people in it…

So the next morning, I chose to fly around 8 am. There were a few people on the beach but not as many as there would have been if it were later on in the day and I didn’t fly as long as I did the previous day. But it was great because the sun was completely out and the colors in the water were looking amazing. I especially like looking at all the shadows the sun created.

My camera settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/2200th sec and ISO 100 with my DJI Mavic Pro.

Out of all the days we were in Chicago, this was definietly the coldest. It’s crazy how cold that city can get and I wasn’t even there during winter and I was freezing my buns off. Honestly, I don’t know how Chicagoans do it.

It was Saturday morning and the first opportunity we had to capture sunrise. I decided that North Avenue Beach would be best for the early morning based on what I’ve read from travel forums and blogs. HOLY COW I did not account for how windy it was going to be. I remember looking at the weather before we left the hotel and thinking “Ok, low 40s. Not too bad” But it felt like low 20s. So thankful I had gloves and a beanie packed in my backpack just in case.

It was so windy that as soon as we got out of our Lyft, Andrew went straight to the lifeguard building to block himself from the wind. He waited until I was done taking pictures for him to finally emerge and check out the skyline right before we left for breakfast.

I’m sure it was a lot colder since we were by Lake Michigan but man, looking at this image definietly brings me back to the cold air. And let’s talk about these waves! Yes, it has been brought to my attention that I’m starting to get a bad reputation with my camera and large bodies of water… but this was a body of water that I did not want to mess with. I was so nervous taking this picture because I had no idea how big the waves were actually going to get and I was trying my very best not to get splashed. I think I would have had to cancel the rest of the trip had I gotten splashed.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/800th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16035mm wide angle lens.

So this ends the week long look back at my adventures with my friend, Sue. If you haven’t been following along, she has been one of my best friends for forever and is moving to Austin, Texas this week. I’m grateful she asked me to take the long drive down to Texas with her so we can spend a little more time together but also I get to check out Austin since I’ve never really been to Texas before.

It’s crazy because looking back at our first cross country road trip, Spain, Maine, and now this image from St John, I’ve realized we’ve done so much together. And this doesn’t even scratch the surface. We’ve been on plenty of girls trips and have spent so much time just adventuring around the Washington DC metro area. I’ll miss her lots but I also know it won’t be for too long before I see her again.

This image is of St John Virgin Island. It’s funny because this was our first ever vacation together and probably one of my favorites. I mean how can it not be? I’m all about that island life. LOL. I remember the exact moment I took this too. We were actually staying on St Thomas, took a ferry to St John and then a bus took us to the local beaches from there. Fortunately the bus stopped at some beautiful places along the way for us to take pictures. I leaned over Sue to take this image but I’m pretty sure that she’s used to me doing stuff like that by now. Not much longer after I took this pic, we were down on that beach laying out 🙂 Sounds perfect right about now.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/640th sec at ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

The other day a friend of mine emailed me asking me if I had Iceland recommendations because they just booked a trip for the summertime. Oh definitely yes I do and basically wrote a book with everything I knew about traveling to the nordic country. All the pros, cons and everything I would do differently. To be honest though, there weren’t that many cons. Way more pros and exciting things to do 🙂

So after that long email, it made me want to go back and revisit some of my older Iceland images. It’s been 2 years since last time I was there but still have great memories of the visit. I’ve never been in the summertime so I definitely noted that it would be interesting to see what it would be like with almost 24 hrs of sunlight. It makes me wonder if sleeping would be difficult .

This image was taken on my last trip there. Vík was one of my favorite places we visited and it’s always on the top of my to-see places whenever people tell me they’re going to Iceland. This was an early morning shot and by early morning I mean around 11:30a in Iceland because we were there in January and the sunrise was around 10:30. It was amazing to get to sleep in for so long but so weird when daylight was only 4 or 5 hours.

An early morning fog had rolled in and seriously illuminated the mountains like I had never seen before. PS Is it me or do you feel like eating a piece of steak now? LOL.

Iceland is definitely one of those places that I could go back to time and time again and not get bored.

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/50th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7ii and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Home from California and it honestly feels a little different being back.

Why? Because I was so used to the beautiful California weather and as soon as I stepped off the plane, all I saw was snow. So sad to have missed the first real snow we got in the Washington DC area but not sad because I had a blast on our trip.

Even though a majority of our time was spent in San Diego and we had a trip similar to this around the same time last year, it was still like our first time there. It was a different experience because this time we went with our cousins and we stayed directly on the beach. Living that beach life was so great. Sometimes instead of driving the rental car, we would just take scooters to get around. We took Frankie on walks on the beach which he loved because he had so much open space to run around and overall just looking outside the windows of our airbnb at sunset was a view that stopped you in your tracks. I loved it.

It also allowed me to spend more time practicing and capturing the city from above with my drone. By the end of the trip, I tended to reach for my drone more times than my actual camera. I love just standing on the beach and seeing different points of view with just a slight movement of my finger. It made taking pictures a little more relaxing.

This image was taken just a few steps away from our airbnb in Mission Beach one morning just after sunrise. It was cool because our view was of the ocean but right behind us was Mission Bay. It was so nice to be surrounded by water.

My camera settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/280th sec at ISO 100 with my DJI Mavic Pro

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.