ANGELA B. PAN

On a cold, cloudless morning I found myself walking around the US Capitol. I didn’t really have any ideas of what I wanted to capture, I was sort of letting the light guide me. Well, it took me right to the front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool. It’s not a surprise to see a lot of birds or ducks wading in the pool. It’s also not a surprise to see the water a little choppy. But what really drew me to capturing the scene was the amazing orange glow that was coming from the Washington Monument from the early morning sun and reflecting in the water.

I love it. I love how the early morning colors sort of look like a pastel painting towards the top of the pool. I love how the birds are breaking up the abstractness but also all lined up in a row. But I also love the mystery of that orange line, directly in the middle of the image. Something about it really draws me in.

In other news, tomorrow morning I’ll be hopping on a flight to Las Vegas for the weekend. I’m really looking forward to it since I have so many memories of the city. When I was young, my mom and I would go every year to visit my aunt and her family. I used to love going to Circus Circus and play all the games but the best was escaping the Vegas heat and sliding down water slides with my cousins at Wet n Wild. This weekend will be fun because it’s for a family wedding and it will be such a mini family reunion. Looking forward to seeing my family and hopefully being able to sneak away for a little bit and take some pics 🙂

My camera settings for this image is f4 at 1/1600 sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm lens.

Happy Valentine’s Day! <3 I’ve been holding on to this image since last summer a for a day like today. I wanted to wait for the right time to share it because I love the way that it turned out. I captured it when I first got my 70-200mm lens and was just walking around the reflecting pool to try to capture some different types of images. The purple tones of the sky and environment goes so nicely with the outfits these gentlemen are wearing. It’s as if I planned the photoshoot myself. LOL.

Anyways, hope you all have a great day today. Andrew and I will be having a quiet night in. We never really go all out for Valentine’s day. Just an evening together is the best way to celebrate. And chocolate. I hope there will be chocolate tonight. LOL. What are your plans?

Be sure to check out the blog tomorrow. I have some really exciting news that I’ll be sharing and I hope some of you guys will be as excited about it as I am.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/200th sec at ISO 1600 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Love is Love.

Just an early morning view of some surfers at La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California. Is it me or if you glance at it real quick, it just looks like some little bits of rice that has fallen down? LOL. This was my only successful attempt of actually getting footage of my cousin, Vincent surfing. All other times he was already in the water and I tried using my drone to find him but with everyone in all black wet suits with white surfboards, it can be really difficult to find the person you’re looking for. It finally worked out that I had my drone ready to go when he was getting into the water and followed him while flying. I told Andrew to also keep a lookout just in case. But I’m so glad I was actually able to find him this time.

While trying to capture him, I had it on video for a majority of the time. But this image was taken in the part of the ocean where it is a bit calmer. You can sit on the board and relax a little bit before swimming out deeper to get the big waves. So while they were taking a break, I took a few pics. I loved the really calm water with the gradient of blues. I purposely waited for a little wave to come up so that it looked more like ocean water and I could highlight Vincent a little more. He’s the guy on the green surfboard kicking up towards the top of the image. The whole time I was editing this image I was channeling my inner Mark Rothko and imagining what he would do. Either way, I love the way it turned out. It just oozes with calmness.

My camera settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/100th sec and ISO 196 with my DJI Mavic Pro.

So it finally happened! Some fresh snow! and I was finally able to capture it. My favorite part about winter.

It started late in the afternoon last Tuesday and was so excited that I hopped in my car right away to try to capture it with the memorials in DC before there were too many footprints in the grass. I love that look of white on white. As soon as I crossed the bridge, my heart sank a little bit. It was actually too warm in Washington for the snow to actually stick on the ground. We were all getting snow but it only sticking in Virginia. UGH. Turned right back around to where I came from.

There was nothing else I could do but either capture it at night or just wait for the next morning and hopefully capture something good in Virgina at sunrise with my drone. So that’s what I did. I woke up early morning, not quite sunrise time but waited a little bit for the sun to rise just to make to be extra cautious in case of ice or something on the roads. I put a random park in my gps and made my way over. I knew it wasn’t going to be my final destination but wanted to get in the general direction of a fly zone.

I drove past the W&OD trail and saw that it may have been a great place to pull over. I don’t exactly where this was taken. Some random neighborhood in between Fairfax and Reston, VA but was so surprised to see that little creek flowing through the trees. After a little bit of flying around, I noticed the sun coming up a little more and blessing the trees with that warm light. I was totally not expecting it but love the way the image is divided between warm and cool. Plus it’s untouched like I was hoping for 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/100th sec at ISO 155 with my DJI Mavic Pro.

One of the places I was looking forward to the most while visiting Joshua Tree National Park was the Cholla Cactus Garden. From the pictures, I could tell that they were like cacti that I’ve never seen before. What surprised me the most was that some of them were taller than me! Andrew is 6′ and it looked like some of them were almost as tall as him! That’s insane.

One of my favorite parts about the garden was that it was right in front of these beautiful mountains. They made for an amazingly beautiful background at sunrise. More of those images soon but while I was looking through my images, I was really drawn to this one. I really liked having the photographers in the middle capturing the scene but still being able to see the cacti in the foreground and mountains in the background. The depth of this image is really interesting and perfectly describes what it’s like being in the garden.

If you’ve never been, the garden is a little bit out there but worth the drive. Probably 15-20 minutes outside of the other trails and attractions but I liked it so much that I actually went twice on our trip. One time with just Andrew when we went out for a solo sunrise adventure. The second time was when our cousins joined us later on in the day and I wanted to show them what it was all about. The sunrise adventure was a little bit better. Andrew and I were the only ones there and I loved when the sun rose a little bit and you could see the sunlight poking through the spikes of the cacti.

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/800th sec and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for cute, cuddly things. So obviously, I had to spend some time at La Jolla Cove while I was out in San Diego. This image was captured early morning while I was out shooting sunrise with Andrew and Frankie. As soon as I saw the seals, I squealed and yelled out that I had to get closer. Andrew, who is always looking out for me, told me that I can’t get too close but I didn’t listen. I pretty much hopped the wall and walked over to seals as fast as I could. Obviously I didn’t want to disturb them so I threw on my 70-200mm lens and got as close as I could without them noticing.

I love that little guy in the middle. Doesn’t it look like he’s smiling? It’s like a dog pile that I wish I were a part of. There were other seals all along the rocks but this group really made me happy. You know what though, one of my friends told me that there are times when there aren’t any seals here? Is that true? I’m grateful that I’ve never witnessed that. I always look forward to the seals whenever I’m in the area.

One last thing, this Thursday I’ll be a part of a travel writing panel at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. If you’re free, I’d love for you to attend. I’ll be there with my friends, Katie Bianco, author of 100 Things to do in Washington, DC Before you Die and Jennifer Barger who has worked with National Geographic, Traveler, etc as we discuss our experiences about writing and photographing the District. I will be talking about Snap DC.

Click here for the details.

My camera settings for the seal image is F7.1 at 1/200th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.