ANGELA B. PAN

The cherry blossoms haven’t bloomed this year. I’m hoping they’ll be out at this time next week.

So this is an image I took last year around this same time. I have tried working on this image several times in the past year but I could never get it right. It’s really different from other images I create because of the lighting. I don’t have much practice with artificial lighting, especially outdoors like that. So whenever I edited it, the colors would look funny and didn’t like it. I’m so happy with the way this one turned out. It’s exactly what I had envisioned from the very beginning. Finally.

It was that same super foggy day that I took this image and this one. This just happens to be the very first image I took that whole morning. The fog had not fully settle in yet so you can see how it’s covering half of the Washington Monument. Little did I know that later on in the morning the entire monument would be covered. So cool!

And little did I know, I would drop my tripod in the Tidal Basin that day too. *face palm* #neverforget.

Anyways, hope you all have a great weekend. I am about to send out my monthly newsletter on Sunday the 1st so if you aren’t subscribed, please do so here. You won’t want to miss out on free calendar downloads, an updated cherry blossom guide and so much more! And if you do use the free wallpapers, screen shot them and send them to me! I would love to see it!

The settings for this image is F8 at 2.5 seconds and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens on a tripod.

Although the peak bloom dates that everyone watches out for are for the cherry blossoms by the Tidal Basin, there have been some other random cherry blossom spottings around the city. This particular tree can be found at the corner of the Library of Congress. They weren’t all fully bloomed yet but I feel like they were late enough in the growing stage that they may be effected by the cold and snow. They were fun to photograph but its kind of sad at the same time. Who knows how long these flowers will hold on with all the snow that’s covering them.

But I have some good news. I heard that the Magnolia trees may actually be ok from the snow. If you’re interested in keeping up to date with the Smithsonian gardens and the DC blooms in general, I recommend following James, the horticultureguy on instagram. He’s a new follow for me but he seems to update almost daily on the gardens and it’s awesome! He was even able to capture the Enid A Haupt garden in the snow and the images are so beautiful. I tried to go, but the gates were closed 🙁  Anyways, he said that they spent the day knocking the snow off the trees and he’s thinks the flowers will be fine. Guess where I’ll be this weekend? LOL

Hope you have a great weekend! As of now, we’re expecting more snow Saturday evening to Sunday morning. You can’t see me but I’m rolling my eyes at the computer screen right now. I really hope that it doesn’t happen. I’m so ready for spring, spring flowers, warm weather, and cute spring dresses. No more snow!

The settings for this image is F11 at 1/160th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens handheld.

From what I heard last week, today has been the day I’ve been waiting for all winter. If all goes well and all the wind and cold air that we had over the weekend didn’t effect anything then the Magnolias will start to peak today. Cash me ousside.

My favorite Magnolia trees are the ones at the Enid A Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall, but you can really find them all over the city. This image was taken at the George Mason Memorial facing the Washington Monument adjacent to the Tidal Basin. To be honest, spring time is really the only time that I spend time at this memorial. It’s a pretty small memorial compared to the others but the landscaping around it is fantastic. Its a great place to just sit on the bench and listen to the birds chirp.

So I’m really looking forward to spending more time here as spring goes on. Actually, that’s an understatement. I think the word really is anxious. I’m really anxious to spend more outside in general. I still have the list I created last year of all the places that I want to photograph. Like spending more time at Dumberton Oaks, the National Arboretum, Enid A Haupt Garden, so many! OMG I can’t wait. So see ya later cold weather. Time to go. Make way for the cherry blossoms. What’s up with March being so cold? 

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens handheld.

Taken back in December, somehow I missed the rising of the supermoon. I’m not sure how it happened since I marked in on my calendar but I wasn’t able to capture it. In my opinion, catching the moon rise is always better than the moon set. I think the moon appears to be much bigger or maybe that just depends where you are standing, but it’s always exciting to watch it come above the horizon. And if you miss the moon rise, the next best thing is moon set, right?

So I woke up super early in the morning. 3:30a to be exact. I met up with my friend, Larry, who seems to have no trouble waking up at that time since he does it on a regular basis. Not always to shoot, but I swear, this guy does not sleep. We wanted to try to capture the moon setting over the Lincoln Memorial but when you’re up that early, it’s still going to be a while. We decided to walk around the National Mall and find some cool compositions in the mean time.

I really like the way this one turned out. Although the warm red color is caused by light pollution, it’s a really cool effect that showcases the color transitions that I’m always talking about. You may not have noticed this but there are some cherry blossoms growing on those trees too! It’s weird because some of them actually start blooming in the beginning of winter. They die off pretty quick but you know me, if there are cherry blossoms, I will shoot them.

Speaking of which, they’re supposed to be peaking in two weeks! Can’t waittttttttt. First comes the magnolias which is like the pre-party. Then the main event! Holllllaaaaaaa

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 6 seconds at ISO 80 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Today is the day! Today is the day that the National Mall NPS will announce their predicted peak bloom date for the cherry blossoms. I can’t wait. I’ve been on twitter everyday this week checking out what they say and what Capital Weather Gang has to say about the weather we’ve been having and how they’d effect the Cherry trees. As a side note, I’m pretty sure I just gained 10 cool points from that last statement. LOL. As of now, I’m just excited for the big announcement!

PS. Today is also the day that my March monthly newsletter goes out. If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up. I have a couple of really exciting announcements of my own that I’ll be announcing on the newsletter first!

Ok, now back to the image on this blog post. This was taken last year, early morning on a particularly beautiful day. It was the day after it rained and it created these amazing puddles all along the Tidal Basin sidewalks. It also rained so hard that there were flower petals all over the place and it felt like you were walking in a wet wonderland of pink. I had my headphones in, rain boots on, and I was having a blast walking around capturing the beautiful trees. It was just by accident that I captured the airplane flying by but I think it makes it a little more interesting to see. I also remember having to wait a little while for this area to clear because there was a big group of people standing underneath the trees taking pictures. It was well worth it because I love the way it turned out. However if you look closely enough, you will still see one person there still taking pictures. At least she’s a little camouflaged though. HAHA.

The settings for this image is F18 at 1/50th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

I didn’t take this image this past Saturday, I took it a couple years ago but it is still one of my favorite snow images I’ve taken.  There are so many things going on in this image but its still so simple. I love the white on white tonality. I also really enjoy how you can barely see the Washington Monument. But my favorite part is seeing the little bit of reflection on the floor surface of the Lincoln Memorial with the little puddles of water and snow blocking the entirety. I think it’s little details like that make the image so interesting to look at.

But what do you think? Would you rather have one more good blanket of snow? or are you ready for spring flowers? I think I could go for one more snow day. But please keep it in February. I don’t want them messing with the Cherry Blossoms again like it did last year.

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 100 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens. LOL I told you this was an older image. You know because I shot this on my Canon.

Which is funny because recently I’ve had quite a few people asking me about switching camera brands. To be honest, I love my Sony and I can’t imagine ever going back to Canon. No offense to Canon but that camera is just a beast. Its so big and bulky and after a while it just got to be too much to carry around on my back. I’m so happy with Sony. I love how easy and free I feel with my camera now. I really can’t imagine shooting with any other camera other than a mirrorless one. I’m hooked!