ANGELA B. PAN

The National Gallery of Art is one of my favorite buildings in Washington DC. I love the architecture, the clean lines and obviously the interior space. But they also have some great cherry blossom trees in the spring time too. I’ve shot them before but this year, I wanted to spend a little more time here. Unfortunately the day I decided to go it was super cloudy, grey and windy. I definietly needed my tripod for this shoot.

I had this idea in my head that I wanted to do a whole series of images from this one spot. It’s still going to happen and I’m going through all the images but I thought this one was pretty cool. It reminds me of the two twin girl emoji, right? 👯 LOL Could you imagine if there was another one of me? LOL I think my mom would have ran away from us while we were in high school. I bet Andrew would love it though. HAHAHA

In order to capture this, I set my camera on my tripod and set the 10 second timer. I sprinted over to stand underneath the tree and as the shutter was going off, I just slightly moved my legs around as if I was just casually standing under the tree. Than I ran back to the camera to check out the image. It may have looked casual, but I was huffing and puffing in between takes. After about 3 tries, I was done and was happy with the way this one turned out.

Is it me or do I look super short in this image too? Oh well. It’s a pretty cool experiment in scale as well.

My settings for this image is F4 at 6 seconds and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens on a tripod.

Like I said yesterday, I’ve been consuming so much information. However listening to audiobooks was something I’ve always done. I didn’t need to go on an instabreak to appreciate a good story. I love listening to books when I’m in the car or even on photoshoots. It’s a great way to get your mind off of things going around you and just focus on what you’re doing.

To be honest, I had never heard of Phil Knight. I think the first time I ever heard his name was in the song by Wale with Lady Gaga called, “Chillin” (as an added bonus, Wale is from Washington DC and the music video is filmed all around the city). But Andrew and I share an audible account and he had previously listened to Shoe Dog and was telling me so many great things about the book. We’re both huge fans of Nikes. So about a month ago I decided to download it and listen to it.

This book is all about taking risks, following your passion and not letting anything get in your way. I love how Nike did not start off with the goal to make billions of dollars. It started off by Phil Knight being a super passionate runner and basically just wanted to bring good footwear to athletes everywhere. To me, he didn’t seem like anyone special growing up. Just a regular guy who loved sports. But it was his determination, his will to make his company a success and overall love of running that made Nike what it is today.

The book was inspiring and at times an emotional roller coaster. I’m not afraid to admit that I cried at the end, twice. If you plan on reading it, I won’t ruin the ending for you but one time when something tragic happened and the second time was when he was summarizing his life and Nike as a company. I could not help but feel so proud and happy for him and I don’t even know the guy. 10 minutes ago was the first time I googled him just so I could see what he looks like. If you ask me, kinda like a Richard Branson looking guy. But he is definietly someone I look up to now. One of my favorite parts of the book was hearing about his personal relationships with the Nike athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Steve Prefontaine. It just goes to show how much he cared for everyone who was around him. I wish I could give him a hug.

Overall, I highly recommend reading or listening to this book if you like learning about how people made it. 4.7 stars out of 5. I still think Steve Jobs is my favorite biography but this is a close second.

As for the image, this was taken at the National Art Gallery in Washington DC. My camera settings are F6.3 at 0.8 seconds at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Day three of gratitude and I could not be more grateful for the DC photo community. When I first started out in photography, I thought I was the only one. I honestly thought that I was the only one from this area who enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. Obviously I had seen other photographs of DC before, but I had no idea who these people were or how to connect with them. So I spent the first 3 or 4 years all by myself.

After a while, I think I just got bored…

so I signed up for Instagram. My eyes seriously exploded. This is where all the people were hiding! I had no idea there was such a large community of local photographers and all their images were amazing! I decided to go on my first photo walk with IGDC and soon after that, Walk with Locals. It’s hard to describe the energy around these walks but I have nothing but positive things to say about them. And it’s so great because even if you don’t know anybody on the walk, you know you at least have one thing in common, a passion for photography. It’s so fun to spend a few hours with like-minded people creating. Ugh, I love it.

Now I love going out to take pictures with people, I’m no longer bored, and somehow I see things in a different perspective each time I go out. It has opened my world to new people and new places and I’m so grateful to the DC photo community for helping me do this.

This image is of my friend, Laurie one morning at the National Gallery of Art. She’s just one of the awesome people I’ve met through Instagram and thrilled every time we get to hang out.

The settings for this image is F/8 at 1/800th of a second and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Last week I had the honor of visiting the National Gallery of Art for the new Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry exhibit. It’s a temporary exhibit but so amazing. I loved how the artists in the exhibit would portray depictions of daily life. Seemly ordinary tasks made beautiful. For example, there were multiple interpretations of a woman writing a letter but the way that these artists would light the subject or even use background imagery as important elements of art was fascinating. I took my time to study each and every single one.

My favorite piece was probably the one entitled “Astronomer by Candlelight” by Gerrit Dou. The piece itself is super tiny. I don’t have them exact measurements but it can’t be any larger than a 5×7″ picture frame. What I liked the most about it were all the details that Dou was able to fit onto this small canvas. I love the lighting and the intricate lines in the map. I found myself staring at the astronomer’s face for over 2 minutes. Everything just looked so polished and very calculated. The arched frame was very unique as well. Overall, I think this piece would look nice in my living room 🙂 Just sayin’!

But there is so much more to see!

So if you have free time in the DC area, go to the National Gallery of Art. It’s a free exhibit and you’ll fall in love. My image is the entrance to the Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting exhibit. Can you just imagine what’s inside?

The camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 1/25th of a second ISO 400 with my SonyA7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Thanks again to the National Gallery of Art for the invite. I had a great time at the exhibit!

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning on meeting a friend for a quick get together. Something informal but still fun. So when it came down to picking the place to meet, I chose the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art. For real, if you’re in the DC metro area and you need a good place to talk, I’d definietly recommend this place. We sat at the benches right around the water fountain under some shade and it was perfect. The meeting ended quickly and I still had time on my parking meter so I decided to walk around the National Gallery of Art for a little bit.

The East Wing has always been my favorite. It’s the modern art part of the gallery and every time I go, I fall more and more in love with this space. It is just so beautiful. The light that comes in through the glass roof in the middle of the day along with all the shadows they create are so amazing. Just every corner of this wing is spectacular.

It has come to the point where I come to the gallery so often that I never try to see it all at once. I’ll pick a floor and take my time there. Really soaking in everything the exhibit has to offer. Then I’ll probably go to the rooftop terrace if it’s a really nice day and then head home. I never feel rushed and it makes it feel brand new every time I visit if I see something new. Regardless, it’s always inspiring and a great way to spend an hour or so.

The settings for this image is F7/.1 at 1/125th of a second ISO 160. Obviously it was a nice and sunny day out so I was able to capture everything with a low ISO.

If you’re in the DC area, check out the June’s issue of the Washingtonian magazine. Its the best of Washington issue and I have two pictures in there! So freakin’ cool! The first and biggest one is the one featured above. I took it one morning at the Hirshhorn Museum when people were waiting in line for the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibit on one of the last days that it was here. They were waiting for day of passes but it’s crazy because I took this around 7a in the morning and there were already so many people there. The light was absolutely amazing and the reflection in the middle as so cool. It was hard not to take the picture. The Washingtonian contacted me and said they were doing a story on lines in DC so I thought that this one would fit perfectly. I especially like all the blue and yellow tones plus the reflection in the windows are pretty awesome as well.

The second image I have in this month’s issue is of the National Gallery of Art’s new roof terrace sculpture by Katharina Fritsch’s titled “Hanh/Cock”. I originally wanted to take a picture of it for Chinese New Year since this year is the sign of the Cock. I think it’s really cool that it ended up in the Washingtonian. This sculpture itself is pretty large and in charge when you see it in person. I don’t know if you can see, but theres a slight shadow of someone in the window. That might give you a comparison of what it’s like to stand right next to it. Oh the jokes that this bird has heard.

Anyways, shout out to Washingtonian for being so awesome. Its always so exciting to see my work published in print. I grew up on the Washingtonian so I’m grateful to be able to contribute to such an awesome publication.