ANGELA B. PAN

You know, I photograph Washington DC a lot. LOL. A lot of the time it’s at sunrise. And lately there hasn’t been a real sunrise that has gotten me excited to shoot, except for this day! I woke up a little earlier than usual and made my way down to the National Mall. Driving in I knew it was going to be a real good one. It’s really hard to say how, but I can just tell by looking at the clouds. Needless to say, I was super hyped.

I knew right away that it was going to be a great photo day. I wanted to make sure that my feet kept on moving as I walked through the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I try my best to experiment with different compositions at the places I go to the most. I really don’t like going home with a SD card full of the same exact images. So the only way to prevent that from happening is to keep on moving. But something was calling me back to the Reflecting Pool. I knew it was going to be THE place to capture this amazing sky.

As soon as I turned the corner from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I stood in awe. It was AMAZING. My favorite is seeing the perfect cloud reflections in the water. In order to capture it all, I had to get real low. No tripod, just balanced my camera on the ground and hoping my winter shivers didn’t move the camera too much. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!

The settings for this image is F8 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

This was taken the same morning as this image just about 30 minutes earlier. It’s a weird perspective in two different ways. 1 because this image is facing west. For some reason, this sunrise had all the color in the opposite direction and hardly anything facing east. You could imagine my surprise when I actually saw it. It was totally unexpected but very much welcomed. 2 because I knew I wanted to try to get the reflection of the colors in from the reflecting pool but there would have been no way I would have been able to get to the other side of the reflecting pool without the colors fading. So I decided that the edge of the reflecting pool was good enough. Personally, I don’t like it when I see other photographers stick their tripods in the reflecting pool to take pictures. I don’t know why but I just find it disrespectful. So this was a handheld shot to make it look like my tripod was in the water. LOL. Don’t worry, no tripods went swimming to capture this image! It stayed safely in the middle of the sidewalk so that no one could push it in. And by no one, I mean me.

But overall I love the way it turned out, especially the side of the steps where it sort of looks like a semi-circle in the reflection. Such an interesting pattern but one I’ve never noticed before and don’t know if I really would have if it weren’t for this angle.

Lesson learned here. Always look behind you when taking pictures. You could be missing out on some fantastic color and would have never known it!

The camera settings for this image is F/8 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Speaking of fall colors still hanging around! Heart eye emoji! (P.S. Is it weird that I say what the emoji is instead of actually using the emoji? HAHA) One of my favorite places to go to for fall colors in Washington DC area is the Tidal Basin. I don’t know if many people know it but the cherry blossom trees are gorgeous in the autumn season. We were so lucky to have gone at the right time on this particular morning. The tree colors were poppin but the sun hitting the leaves made them look like they were glowing this amazing gold color. I’d say this was probably 30-45 minutes after the sunrise.

At first I thought this season wasn’t going to be great for fall foliage. I had heard somewhere that we didn’t get as much rain as we usually do so that was going to somehow negatively affect the leaf colors. That was definietly wrong. I think all it really did was delay it for a couple of weeks because they are out in full force right now. You can even see the trees on the opposite side of the Tidal Basin and so many of them were this beautiful red color. We didn’t walk that way but I’m sure they’re just as beautiful as the yellow tree I was standing under. So if you’re in the DC area, I’d highly suggest checking them out soon before they all go away.

Shout out to Brandon, his cousin, and Jarrett for the early sunrise shoot. It was a fun morning walking around the National Mall with you guys! A morning filled with photos, camera talk and colorful leaves- what could be better?

My camera settings for this image is F/11 at 1/320th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

I’m not sure what has gotten into me lately, but I’ve been waking up so early. Like way before my alarm goes off to wake me up for sunrise, even early enough where I could scramble myself some eggs for breakfest and still be on time to watch the sun. Oh man. That’s early! It’s like I’m jet lagged…

But what else is there to do at 5 o’clock in the morning but go out and take pics, right?

Luckily we’ve been having some awesome sunrises around the Washington DC area. This particular morning wasn’t as colorful as I usually hope for but it was so moody. I’ll take it!

It rained over night and the steps to the United States Capitol was so reflective. You know me, I love a good puddle when I see one. So I was playing around with different angles and perspectives when I finally came across this one. Holy cow, I love how the trees look as big as the Capitol Building. One of my favorite things to do is to get down low and make whatever is in the foreground look bigger than what’s in the background. Its sort of a eye-mind trick thing but I think it looks super cool. And for some reason my eye keeps going down to the reflection and staring at the Statue of Freedom lookin’ like a squiggly line. It’s so interesting how that came out.

Don’t get me wrong though, I am not complaining about waking up early. I’m complaining about being super sleepy by 8pm every night. #grandmastatus So expect to see way more sunrise images from me soon 🙂 I’ve got a few lined up.

My camera settings for this image is F22 at 0.6 seconds and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Last but definietly not least, I’m grateful for all of you. You all have made it possible for me to do what I love every single day. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for it. And it blows my mind that you actually take the time out to read my blog and view my pictures everyday. I’m just a girl with a camera. Seriously, THANK YOU!

I took this image in 2012. I remember it very clearly because it was one of the first times I had ever done a long exposure like this. I remember coming home and being so proud that it actually worked. How have times changed. Now I’m taking long exposures every other day. HAHA

My camera settings for this image is F11 at 1/6 seconds and ISO 100 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens.

Above is an image of a recent project that I had been working on for a private home. The final result is a 44×86″ double framed print. The white frame is meant to look like a regular mat and it will prevent any curling or anything in the future since the print is so large. So cool, right? Unfortunately, like many other projects that I work on, I did not get to see the final product in person. But I did get to see the print before it got framed and it looked excellent. It got installed last weekend and I’m grateful for the family who purchased this to send me a picture.

So out of appreciation of you all, I’d like to offer a discount code for black friday on all my prints. Click the link here and use the discount code: “HappyHolidays” at checkout.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all your kind comments, support and love. They mean the world to me.

One of my favorite things to do after taking sunrise pictures is to just sit and enjoy the early morning light. Sometimes you can forget to enjoy the moment. Maybe you woke up late and you’re in a hurry to get to your location or you’re trying to find the perfect composition at the time the light is hitting you subject just right. There can be a number of things that cause you to stress so early in the morning which kinda sounds odd because photography is suppose to be a fun activity. But once all of that madness is done and you’re just left with the early morning light, it can be so peaceful to just sit and enjoy. Even for 10 minutes. It is the most relaxing and beautiful way to spend the morning. I love it. I just feel so happy and calm. Its a great way to just slow down. Rarely will I even have my cell phone out.

This was taken at Otter Cliff in Acadia National Park, Maine. Just looking at this image brings back those feelings of relaxation and peace. I remember sitting on those rocks after I captured this image and watching the sun for a good 20 minutes before doing anything else. That buoy in the distance was ringing a bell every time a wave rocked it over.  Sue and I were the only ones there and barely even said a word to each other. Is it weird to say that thinking about this image and what it took to capture it makes me look forward to waking up for my next sunrise? Yes. The answer is yes.

PS Where the otters at?

The camera settings for this image is F10 at 1/13th of a second with ISO 100 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.