ANGELA B. PAN

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.

Kinda trippy, isn’t it? Like Whaaa?

One morning earlier this year during cherry blossom season, I woke up feelin’ real good. I was able to wake up extra early, drove down to the tidal basin and found amazing parking. (This is an extra big deal because parking can be pretty impossible during cherry blossom season). I basically walked around like I was going to rock this photoshoot with the cherry blossoms. Not to toot my own horn, but I knew some magic was about to happen! Then I saw these guys. They were taking the best cherry blossom trees and lighting them up from the bottom. If you know me and my photography, you know that I never use additional light. No flashes, no strobes, none of that stuff. I always use the light available to me. So I stood there for a minute and thought about how I could make the best use out of the ‘available light’. I really don’t think this image would have been as successful if there was no ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. It creates a depth that I would have not been able to accomplish. So, shout out to the photographers that you see on the left side of this image. You guys created something spectacular for me to capture 🙂 Muchas Gracias.

Although my favorite part of this image has nothing to do with the reflection or the depth that this image has. If you look in the puddle, on the bottom right hand corner, then you’ll see this cherry blossom petal created a heart. I think that little detail is so subtle but so sweet. I was so happy to see it during post production. I like it so much that I don’t even mind that it’s out of focus. I kinda like it better that way.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love shooting the fog. *but knowing me, I’ll probably tell you a 100 more times so just pretend it’s like your first time hearing it each time I tell you. You know that scene in Cinderella when all the birds and mice dress her up for the ball? It’s like a whirlwind of magic and then all of the sudden, she’s ready? That’s what it’s like shooting in the fog for me except I really hope there are no mice circling me and I pretty much look exactly the same as I did before it got all foggy. But what I mean by the Cinderella reference is that I feel like I’m being wrapped up in this warm magical cloud whenever I’m walking through the fog. It’s absolutely amazing. But what it does to the scenery is even better. Everything is so muted and reduced down to the bare minimum. If I could wake up everyday to fog, I’d be a happy photographer.

That’s why I was super excited when I saw the Jefferson Memorial like this. Just a tiny hint of reflection in the Tidal Basin water with a bit more of the top of the Jefferson Memorial and cherry blossom trees peaking through. You have just enough information to know where this is. You may think this is black and white, but it’s not. Just the way the scene presented itself. I was standing on Kutz Bridge literally in awe of it all.

This was shot on my tripod with camera settings F/9 at 1/30th of a second with ISO 200. Not much photoshop editing with this one either. The hardest part was getting rid of all those dust spots! Man am I the only one who can never keep a clean sensor?

Finally we got snow! After a super mild winter, I thought we weren’t going to get snow at all this year. The other day I said we were expecting at least 5″ but I think it only came out to be 2″. Then it turned into sleet. Man was it sleeting! That was definietly the worst part. It felt like mini ice cubes were attacking your face. At some points during the morning walk, I had to turn around and walk backwards. It was too much to handle. Then it made everything turn in to slush. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

I shot this with my friend, Navin. Turns out the metro didn’t close down but they were just on a delayed schedule. Even still, I’m so happy I was able to get out there and shoot. I would of been so sad to have missed the opportunity. This time I took the Federal Triangle stop which is something I’ve never done before. Usually I’ll take Smithsonian or Foggy Bottom but I was feeling kinda adventurous 🙂 I’m glad I did because it forced me to walk a different way than I usually would have to the Washington Monument which then made me see it in a totally different way. If you’re interested, I was standing sort of close the National Museum of African American History and Culture but on the bottom of the hill. I love how the snow simplifies everything and it really just reduces the image down to the trees and the monument. The smaller trees in the background, close to the monument are cherry blossom trees. I also thought it was kind of cool how the flags perfectly align inside the two tree trunks.

I’m glad it snowed but I’d like to get on with spring now, please?

I remember the exact time I took this image. 5:21am. How do I remember? I took a snapchat of this same exact shot and applied the time filter to it. Then when I got back to my car, I realized I got my very first DC parking ticket. Guess what time it was at? 5:21am. Argh!!!

So all that rain from the other day really caused a big flood at the Tidal Basin yesterday. It was kinda crazy to see exactly how much water there actually was.

I took so many images those 24 hours. Im trying my best to get through them all. Expect a vlog soon 🙂