ANGELA B. PAN

Just a little reminder that I’ll be hosting another photowalk tomorrow morning at 5:20a. We’re meeting at the Lincoln Memorial as a part of the Focus on the Story International Photo Festival. We’ll walk around the National Mall, talk photography and cameras, and have a great time! Did I mention there will be donuts?

If you’ve never been to a photowalk before, it’s super casual and super fun. Please come with your smily face on because there’s nothings better than to meet people who have the same interests as you. People who know exactly what you’re talking about and share the same enthusiasm as you. And let’s be honest here. If you’re meeting someone new at 5:20a, you know they’ve got to have the same enthusiasm as you! So set your alarms and I hope to see you tomorrow! If you do come tomorrow, use the hashtag #FOTSwalk18 so everyone can look at each other pics. Just like last time, I’ll share some of my favs on my blog on Monday 🙂

This image was taken earlier this year in the winter before sunrise. I knew I arrived a bit early but it was ok because the blue hour was looking gorgeous. I parked my car and made my way over to the Lincoln Memorial. We got a little bit of snow the day before so the puddles were looking great. I noticed how cool the street lights looked in this particular puddle so I spent sometime with the reflections. My favorite part of the image are the clouds though. It gives that much needed texture in the sky and in the water.

So hope to see you tomorrow! If not, have a great weekend and hope you’re doing something you love to do.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 0.3 seconds at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm handheld.

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.

If you get to your location earlier enough, even on the cloudiest of days, you can still get a pretty awesome light show. This was taken last week after all the snow fell. The tidal basin was glowing in purples and I thought going behind Jefferson memorial would be a pretty cool view of it all.

Today’s another one of those days where I don’t know what to write about. So here are some of the things that I’ve been thinking about recently:

– I dance the best when I’m alone in front of the mirror
– I think I may be turning into a belieber… no judging.
– Can’t wait to go to Tokyo next month and eat
– Sometimes I ask Frankie questions like, “Why are you so cute?” and wait for him to answer me
– House of Cards next weekend #FU2016
– Change is good
– Fries are good

Not only can I not sleep in anymore but since the sun rises so late now, I feel like I’ve been waking up extra early. It’s ok though or else I wouldn’t have been able to see gorgeous light like this if I were 10 minutes later.

3 Things I’m grateful for this week:

1. This makes me giggle.

2. Making fun lists like this one.

3. 7 days til Christmas!

Three things I’m grateful for this week:

1. Found out that tripods are allowed at the US Capitol now! WOO HOO! I always thought it was so silly that we couldn’t use them on the grounds but I found out yesterday that they’re allowed year around now. Winning!

2. This amazing weather we’ve been having with temperatures in the 60s? Sounds like perfect skate boarding weather to me.

3. Finally feeling festive for the holiday season, but I need some gift suggestions. Any cool ideas, let me know!