ANGELA B. PAN

If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, then you would know that I used to say three things I was grateful for every Friday. I’m not sure what happened to that because it just stopped. To be honest, I think I just forgot. But if you do remember that, thank you. I love you. You are one of my favorite people on the internet.

So I don’t know if I’m going to do this every Friday but I’m at least going to do it today because I have so many things to be grateful for.

1. I’m grateful to be in Orlando right now with family having the time of my life. Tomorrow is my nephew’s 3rd birthday and I can’t wait to watch him blow out the candles on his cake. It’s one of his favorite things to do even when it’s not his own birthday and I’m so excited to see him happy 🙂
2. I’m grateful for the DC photo community. I’ve met so many great people in the past year or two that I can’t believe it’s only been 1 or 2 years since I’ve started going to instameets and things. Regardless, I’ve met some really awesome, creative, nice people and I could not be more grateful for them always inspiring me to do more.
3. I’m grateful for the sunrising everyday. Its probably my favorite time of day (minus the waking up so early part) because it’s just so still and quiet. I love getting out there with my camera and just knowing that I will have that moment to watch something beautiful happen before me. Sometimes it can be hard to balance the photography vs. enjoying the moment thing, but I’m having a great time figuring it all out.

This image was created in Point Loma, San Diego. Just a peaceful morning out on the water that made me so happy to be there. My camera settings for this image is F16 at 1/30th of a second at ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

To be honest my personal life has been busy, espcially in the past week or so. So busy to the point that I almost forgot that we’re leaving on a short getaway tomorrow. Around Thanksgiving time, Andrew and I booked a trip to Orlando with our cousins and I haven’t really thought about it much since then. But at this point, I can’t think of anything better. I can’t wait to soak up the Florida sun and spend a couple days on rides and rollercoasters. I’ll have my camera and drone with me, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be shooting. I hope to get at least one cool shot of the fireworks at the Disney castle, other than that I have no real plans.

So if you have any Orlando, Disney, or Universal Studios recommendations, please let me know! It’s my first time visiting since I was a child. You better believe that I’ll be rocking Minnie Mouse ears though! I can’t wait <3

This image has nothing to do with Florida but it does put me in a relaxing mood which is what I’m looking forward to the most on our trip. I took this one morning in La Jolla, San Diego. There weren’t as many sea lions out but for some reason they were all gathered on this rock. So I sat down and watched them for a good 20 minutes. The sun was just coming up and I loved feeling the wind in my hair. I knew I wanted to place myself in this image some how so I could remember the moment and what it was like to be there. So out came my legs and I took a shoefy. Don’t yell at me, but I never remember to tie my shoes until I really have to. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/50th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Somedays you get real lucky with sunrises. Somedays you don’t. This day I was EXTREMELY lucky.

I woke up a little bit earlier than I usually do and headed down to the US Capitol. Since it was kinda cold out, I decided to park on the street where I could keep my eye on the sunrise at all times but not actually have to get out of the car 🙂 I don’t remember what I was doing on my phone, probably on instagram or watching a youtube video or something when I noticed the sky change a little bit. I quickly jumped out of the car, grabbed my tripod out of the trunk and ran over to the reflecting pool. By the time I arrived, the sky had turned a crazy, vibrant color of pink. It was honestly one of the most exciting sunrises I had seen in a real long time. I grabbed a few shots and debated if I wanted to stay by the water or move closer to the Capitol Building itself. I noticed the water level was unusually high so I decided to stay by the water and take some images from right above. With it being so high and the weather being kind of windy, it was making the reflections dance a bit. I thought it was really cool.

But my favorite part of the whole morning was running into my friend, Erikson. He was on his way to work when the sunrise stopped him in his tracks. We watched the sunrise together and he even got this pretty cool behind the scenes shot of me. Click here if you want to check it out. It was so great just to sit and watch the sky with him. The color didn’t last long but it was so worth the early morning wake up call. I’m in love with how this image turned out <3

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/10th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7Ii and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

If you haven’t checked it out already, I posted a new vlog on my youtube channel last week! Just a few clips of our trip to San Diego plus I added some of footage I captured from the drone. I’m having so much fun flying now and becoming a lot more comfortable with it. Over the weekend I flew a little bit with my cousin, Brian and he taught me how to take off and land from my hand! SOOO COOL! So if you haven’t checked out the video yet, click here to watch our trip to San Diego. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This image was taken on one of the many foggy mornings we had in SoCal. I will admit it was a little difficult to find compositions at times with all the fog and not being able to see too far ahead, but I love the way this one turned out. I think my favorite part is seeing the bird’s reflections in the sand. It’s so simple but I just can’t stop looking at it. The lines in the sand really help draw you in as well. I don’t know about you, but I always associate southern California with sunshine so it was interesting to see the other side of it. However next time I go, I would like some sun. This is the second time in the row when there was a whole bunch of fog. You’d think I was in San Francisco or something!

The settings for this image is F18 at 0.6 seconds with ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

PS I heard we’re expecting some snow this week in Washington, DC. plus the super moon! I’m really looking forward to going out and shooting this week. Good times ahead!

Last summer when I was in San Diego, my friend, Sue and I spent a crazy amount of time at the La Jolla Cove. It was not intentional, it just happened. We had just finished driving cross country from northern Virginia and we were exhausted! Obviously we made stops along the way but our average drive everyday was about 8-9 hours. So by the time we arrived to our final destination in San Diego, we just wanted to chill!

We only had one full day in San Diego so we wanted to make the most of it. We spent the morning at the La Jolla farmers market sampling some of the finest vegan cuisine that SoCal had to offer and then walked over to the cove. That is when we spotted all the sea lions and seals on the rocks and it was pretty much over from there. There were so many of them! Neither one of us could not stop squealing at how cute the animals were and accidentally ended up spending more than 3 hours at the cove. LOL oh well. It was a much needed break and a great way for us to relax.

So this time around I knew that I had to go back and see my friends again. There weren’t as many of them out as there was last time I was here, but it was still cute none the less. They look like they’re loving that early morning light. I love watching them swim around, climb on the rocks and interact with each other. It’s like they are wet dogs. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F10 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

Click here to watch my video from our road trip. It was a blast and a half!

Out of the 7 days that we’ve been in San Diego, 6 of them have been foggy. It’s not foggy all day and it mostly comes around sunrise or sunset, the best times for taking pictures. I love the fog and everything but I thought I was coming to California for some sunshine.

But I am not letting any of the weather stop me from shooting. If I can’t photograph the skies, then I will try my best to photograph other things. This particular morning was not foggy but it was extremely cloudy. I found myself on the Ocean Beach pier just watching the waves go by. As the sun was rising higher in the sky, I noticed how beautiful it made the water look. I positioned myself on the pier so that I’d be shooting towards the shore and watching the back side of the wave roll by me.

My favorite part of this entire image is that little bit of light of aqua color on top of the wave. That was the color and light I was looking for while I was shooting this image. I don’t know but there’s something so fascinating about watching the waves roll by from up above. I love watching the patterns and repetition. Next time I need to bring the drone!

The surfer in the image was just an added bonus. I didn’t even realize he was there until I looked at these images on the computer. It’s pretty cool to see him in context to the wave. He looks so tiny compared to it.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/50th of a second and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens. I didn’t not shoot this with a tripod but was using the pier ledge to stabilize my camera.