ANGELA B. PAN

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love shooting the fog. *but knowing me, I’ll probably tell you a 100 more times so just pretend it’s like your first time hearing it each time I tell you. You know that scene in Cinderella when all the birds and mice dress her up for the ball? It’s like a whirlwind of magic and then all of the sudden, she’s ready? That’s what it’s like shooting in the fog for me except I really hope there are no mice circling me and I pretty much look exactly the same as I did before it got all foggy. But what I mean by the Cinderella reference is that I feel like I’m being wrapped up in this warm magical cloud whenever I’m walking through the fog. It’s absolutely amazing. But what it does to the scenery is even better. Everything is so muted and reduced down to the bare minimum. If I could wake up everyday to fog, I’d be a happy photographer.

That’s why I was super excited when I saw the Jefferson Memorial like this. Just a tiny hint of reflection in the Tidal Basin water with a bit more of the top of the Jefferson Memorial and cherry blossom trees peaking through. You have just enough information to know where this is. You may think this is black and white, but it’s not. Just the way the scene presented itself. I was standing on Kutz Bridge literally in awe of it all.

This was shot on my tripod with camera settings F/9 at 1/30th of a second with ISO 200. Not much photoshop editing with this one either. The hardest part was getting rid of all those dust spots! Man am I the only one who can never keep a clean sensor?

Another puddle shot. I’ve been loving them this year and shooting them at the Tidal Basin is super easy because there are always puddles! Even when it’s super clear and nice out, there will be a puddle. It’s just because the sidewalks can be really uneven that if you look around there will be at least a little one in the cracks somewhere.

This however was not a little puddle. It was quite big and pretty much took over the whole sidewalk. Days like this, I’m super grateful to have rain boots. That way I can walk comfortably wherever without having to worry about my socks getting wet or my shoes getting muddy.

I’m also really grateful that the cherry blossoms peaked so nicely this year. It was totally unexpected that they would since we had that cold spell in the middle of March. I think it scared away a lot of the people because everyday that I went down to the Tidal Basin, there weren’t a lot of people there (compared to previous years where it’d be hard to even walk, let alone get shots without many people in it). Overall I’m just so happy spring is here and the cherry blossoms were amazing. I don’t know if I’ll be at the Tidal Basin anymore shooting the cherry blossoms this year but hopefully in other places around the DMV area <3

This was shot at F5.6 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 400. Again, I did not shoot this on my tripod because it just can’t get low enough. Which reminds me, if you guys have any tripod recommendations that can get super low, like almost touching the ground, let me know. I’d love to try that out. The only reason the ISO was at 400 was because this was hand held and I wanted to make sure to get everything sharp and in focus.

Out of all the cherry blossom images I took this year, this one has got to be my favorite. I admit theres not as much color, saturation or editing that was involved in this one compared to some of my other images but I can’t help but love the mood it evokes. It’s also a take on the cherry blossoms that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before from the Tidal Basin. It was from last Monday when it was super foggy out. I had been walking around all morning capturing the fog and was having a total blast. But like everything else, the fun had to stop at some point. I walked the scenic route back to my car from the Jefferson Memorial and was stunned when I saw this. The high tide had risen so high that the low hanging cherry blossom branch was able to touch the water. It was just so soft and delicate, I had to find the perfect way to capture it all.

It was also amazing that there was barely anyone around. Maybe because it was a Monday morning and most people were at work at that time, but everything was just so silent and still. The couple sitting on the branch had been there for a while taking selfies. I had to include them to convey a feeling of peace and calmness of just relaxing on the tree trunk.

My camera settings were F/6.3 at 1/80 of a second ISO 200 with my 28-70mm. No particular reason for my lens choice. I think I had just been walking around with it on and didn’t feel the need to switch to the wide angle. I wanted to capture the scene as quickly as possible.

This is my favorite for now. I took so many images these past few days. Another one may pop up later that I love even more. We shall have to see <3

It finally happened! The cherry blossoms peaked! And they are so much better than expected. They actually look like what they’re supposed to. Fluffy white/pink clouds on trees. It’s what I’ve been waiting for all year long. Previous weather reports said that only 50% would blossom. I’d disagree and say there’s at least 75% going strong. Obviously there are some trees here and there that didn’t quite make it through the spring-winter, but the ones that actually did are so worth it.

Yesterday morning I woke up, pulled out of my drive way and the first thing I saw was the fog. For some reason my first reaction was a malicious laugh. I was so excited to check out how the fog affected the Tidal Basin. The water levels were high, the fog was amazing and I had a blast walking around all morning. I felt like the more the day went on, the better it got. Eventually the fog was was dense that you couldn’t even see the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial. It was nuts. (But so perfect at the same time). I shot this image right before the Jefferson got totally covered.

I shot this at F9 1/20th of a second ISO 200 with my 28-70mm. If your camera has live preview, I’d highly recommend shooting with that feature. I feel like I can compose my images so much better when I’m in live preview as opposed to using the eye piece. I think it’s because you can see EVERYTHING plus its just an easier perspective to see. I don’t think I would of been able to see this image without live preview.

The end of the morning was a bit crazy however. I was taking some final images when I ran into my friend, Alana. I said “hi” to her and my tripod fell into the the Tidal Basin!!! How CRAZY IS THAT?! I still can’t believe it. I think I’m going to have to make a youtube video to tell you the whole story.

Shot on the same puddle as this image. Even on a super cold, windy day there will always be people running around the tidal basin. I don’t know how they do it, especially in shorts. Anyways, I saw him running from 100 ft away. I immediately got into position where I thought I could get him and the Washington Monument in the same shot, squatted down low and hoped that it would work out. Luckily it did. This was probably about 20 minutes after the first image was shot though. Thats why this one is way more moodier and darker than the other one. I really like how the guy is almost silhouetted.

In other news, Andrew and I have booked our next trip! We’re going to be flying into Denver and road tripping it to Moab, UT and Rocky Mountain National Park. If you’ve been there, please let me know if you have any recommendations. Hotel, food, photography, whatever. Neither of us have ever been and I’m super excited to explore the mile high city and for our road trip. I know its going to be amazingly beautiful. One of my friends just came back from there and he was telling me that the altitude sickness is real while in Denver. After a quick amazon search, I’m not sure which medicine would be the best for us. So if you have any experience with that, please let me know as well. I never thought I’d get motion sickness but recently there have been times when I’m on a boat and will get pretty ill. I’d like to prevent anything like that from happening on our trip so I can maximize my photography time. Oh YEA!

This is going to be an awesome experience. I’ve always felt like I’ve only been to the coasts and edges of the United States but never anywhere in the middle. Really looking forward to the adventure 🙂

I know I’ve been posting a lot of the Tidal Basin recently, but thats where I’ve been going lately. Every time I go, I am hoping to see some cherry blossoms. More like wishing and praying. There are a few here and there that have bloomed but this particular morning that I went out the main attraction was definietly the cloudy sunrise. There was this amazing glow that was coming from the horizon that you just couldn’t ignore. However my favorite part of this image is being able to see the Jefferson statue right in the middle of the columns. I also really like the elongated reflection in the water.

Days like this one make me so happy to be a photographer living in the DC metro area. I feel really fortunate to be able to visit these monuments on a regular basis and to see the beauty in them in almost any kind of light. Not a lot of people have the same opportunities so I’m really grateful for mine. Even with all the early morning wake up calls and late nights, when I see a sunrise like this, it makes it completely worth it. But it’d be hard to pick which monument is my favorite monument to photograph. It’s like choosing which puppy is the cutest. They’re all so great and you love them all in such different ways. You can’t actually pick just one. (Was that a weird analogy? Comparing monuments to puppies?)

If you’re interested in knowing my settings on this image they were: f5.6 at 1/5 sec. I shot it on my Sony a7ii with my 16-35mm wide angle lens. If you’d like to know my settings for future images, just let me know in the comments below. If I remember, I’ll try to put them in my blog posts for you.