ANGELA B. PAN

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.

Hi my name is Angela and I’m palm tree obsessed.

Every time I step out of our airbnb, I see them and can’t stop smiling. I love looking up and just knowing that today is a good day. My favorite is seeing them in rows like this. I think it is so cool. I don’t know why. Its just something I’m totally not used to seeing on the east coast.

So earlier this week, Andrew, Frankie and I were at Ocean Beach around sunset and just walking around scouting the place for cool photo opportunities. As we were walking along the beach, I saw this row of palm trees. I knew I had to come back at sunrise to try to capture it with some color in the sky. Luckily, the very next day at sunrise my vision came true! It was surprising to actually see color in the sky since it’s been so foggy since we arrived. Foggy, but still very nice temperatures 🙂

The other good thing about going at sunrise is that there are not as many cars around so I could stand in the middle of the road and not bother as many people as I would if I were shooting at sunset. It was funny though. About 20 minute minutes after I took this image, a man walked up to me and said “were you the one who was standing in the middle of the street?”. I laughed and said yes. Luckily he just wanted to tell me about some other photo opportunities other than standing in the middle of the street. Man, people here in San Diego are so nice!

My camera settings for this image is F18 at 1.3 seconds and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens shot on my gitzo tripod.

Greetings from San Diego! and Happy New Year! This is my first official blog post of 2018. The first two were prescheduled in 2017. Kinda sneaky, eh? LOL.

So far 2018 has been nothing short of beautiful. I’m currently sitting on the front porch of our Airbnb cottage, listening to water flowing from a water fountain and staring at some beautiful oranges on our orange tree. Not sure how it could get any better than this. Since arriving, Andrew, Frankie and I have just been settling into our new environment. We went to the farmers market to pick up some fresh produce and just been sightseeing and getting to know the area a little better. We’re staying in North Park and loving every minute of it. Every morning we’ve been here has been incredibly foggy. Foggy but so fun and exciting! By mid-morning everything clears up and it’s back to enjoying the sunny skies.

I took this image yesterday in La Jolla at Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier. It was taken about an hour after sunrise and after the fog lifted from the beach. My favorite part of this image is that little hit of sun glow on the wood. To be honest, I’m not sure how busy this place gets at sunrise but somehow I feel lucky to have been the only one there. Well, me and this seagull of course.

I can’t wait to explore San Diego even more with my camera. So if you have any photo recommendations for me, let me know! Also food recommendations. I’ve already had my first official fish taco as my first meal when we arrived but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be my last 🙂

The camera settings for this image is 1/200th of a second at F5.6 and ISO 200 with my Sony a7II and 28-70mm lens.

This was definitely one of my favorite days of 2017! Obviously Washington DC is famous for it’s cherry blossoms in the spring time but this past season was sooo unique. We had a crazy warm winter which lead to a weird snow that we got in March. It was so unexpected and out of nowhere. Everybody was so confused by it, including the cherry blossoms! They had already started to bloom and all the weathermen in the area were saying how this year’s cherry blossoms weren’t going to be doing too well.

They were right and they were wrong. A lot of the trees still peaked but some trees were complete duds. The flowers themselves weren’t as vibrant as they usually are. Which was totally fine by me because I think that also mislead a lot of people and they all decided to just skip the blooms this year. It was purrrfect.

So this was taken on a particularly foggy morning where you could barely see 10ft in front of you. It was soooo awesome and so much fun to photograph. I was probably out for 4 hours or something like that just photographing the flowers. The best part was that there was barely anyone there! Usually this place would be packed. I was in a photographer’s dreamland.

My favorite part of this image is seeing the slight reflection in the tidal basin water. It’s crazy to think that just right behind that branch is the Washington Monument which is totally covered by the fog. I usually use it as a point of reference because it’s so tall but you couldn’t even see it with your naked eye. It was bananas. And I love bananas. LOL

The settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/40th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

Its been a couple of years since it’s been built and guess what. I still haven’t been on the Capital Wheel. I should really put that on my to-do list. I bet the views from there are real nice. For some reason every time I’ve been to the National Harbor, it’s closed. But then again, I’m usually there just to eat and not really anything else. Have you had Grace’s Mandarin? OMG so good. LOL.

I captured this image about a year ago just by luck. I happened to be driving home from my friend’s house in Maryland and noticed how insanely foggy it was getting outside. But when I crossed over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, I noticed how the fog was effecting the colors of the ferris wheel. It was like something I had never seen before. It was sooo foggy that the fog was actually carrying the colors from the lights. I had to make a quick U-turn to check things out. Luckily I had my camera and tripod with me. Oh man, I would have been so upset if I didn’t. But as I got closer to the ferris wheel, the cooler it looked. The fog blocked everything else out and the only thing visible was the wheel. If I shot this without the fog, you would have probably seen so much many more lights from the National Harbor or even the roads leading up to it. I’m so grateful that I had my gear with me.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 0.8 seconds at ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm camera.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Can you believe it’s already December 15th? Luckily I finished all my holiday shopping earlier this week. Thank you Amazon! I’ve never been so prepared 🙂

Sometimes I’ll get into these zones and edit a whole bunches of images all at the same time, store them onto my desktop folder called “haven’t blogged yet” and then totally forget about them. This is the case with this image. I took it last week when it was crazy foggy at Shenandoah National Park and didn’t even bother posting it on instagram or anywhere else. Umm whoops?

In order to get into these zones, I’ll put on my ear phones and not even think about anything else other than the music I’m listening to and the image in front of me. It’s so fun. Although if you were looking through my window I’d look like a weirdo because I’ll be bopping my head and flinging my pointer finger around to the beat of the music. HAHA

To be honest, I’m probably done with Shenandoah National Park for the season. I’m going to try to concentrate on photographing more local areas to me like Great Falls Park and DC for the rest of the fall time. It’s not that I don’t love going, it’s just exhausting waking up so early in the morning, spending a couple hours there and then driving back. I usually won’t be home until the afternoon and it feels like most of the day has gone. But who knows? Maybe there will be a sunset shoot or night time shoot in my future? We’ll see!

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/40th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and my 16-35mm wide angle lens.