ANGELA B. PAN

Thank you to my friend, Frithjov who told me about this location. He actually told me about it years ago and I have always kept it in the back of my mind to go and try to find some reflective puddles. But now that the fencing around the Washington Monument is down, I thought that Sunday was the perfect opportunity to go back and check it out. Also, I saw him while I was parking my car earlier in the morning which was probably another memory trigger to go back to the Sylvan Theater. LOL.

So after we were done capturing images at the Lincoln Memorial, Jarrett and I made our way over to the Washington Monument. It was such a beautiful morning with fast-moving clouds. I felt like I captured so many different images on our little walk but this one was probably my favorite. I love seeing the perfect circle the American flags created around the Washington Monument plus the tiny person even reflected a little in the puddle couldn’t be more ideal.

My camera settings for this image are F7.1 at 1/200th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.

Since the new year has started, I’ve been trying to go out with my camera as much as I can. I’m not sure what kicked my butt into high gear like this, but I’m grateful to live in a place where I can never get tired of exploring and documenting. In the past two weeks, I may have visited the Lincoln Memorial at least 5 times. Each time is different and I am still not tired of it.

But over the weekend, we had surprisingly beautiful weather. For the middle of January, I will take temps in the high 60s any day! So I was even more excited to be out with my camera. On Sunday morning, as I was walking towards the Lincoln Memorial, I got a text from my friend, Jarrett asking if I was out shooting. He had already been there for a while so he had already scoped out the scene. The rain we got Saturday evening left a huge puddle inside the Lincoln Memorial. After catching up a bit, Jarrett took me inside and my mind was blown by how clear and reflective the puddle was. I took a few shots and then had to ask Jarrett to step in for a few.

My camera settings for this image are F4 at 1/4th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.

This image was taken on the same day as this one. When I first arrived at the reflecting pool about 45 minutes before sunrise, I saw that the World War II memorial was beautifully lit with the fountain flowing. So I got busy trying to capture the image I had imagined in my head. After 10 minutes of being there, the fountains turned off at the World War II memorial. It was unfortunate because the image I had imagined had to do with the fountains. So I shifted my focus on photographing the Atlantic side of the memorial.  But then I didn’t even notice that the Pacific side was glowing with color! It was one of those mornings when I seemed to be a little off with everything but oh well. I was glad I went out either way.

So when I finally noticed the color, I ran with my tripod inside the memorial. You may see that I caught a little bit of the remaining color, but it was pretty much gone by the time I set my camera back up. Either way, I still think the reflection turned out so nice and crisp.

I should look up the fountain schedule thou. It was so weird that they turned it off at sunrise. I wonder when they turn it back on?

My camera settings for this image are F5 at 1/16th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 35mm prime lens.

This past weekend, my friend, Andy invited a few photographer friends out to join him for sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial. It was a super cold and windy morning, I almost didn’t make it out of my bed. But I ended up going and had a great time catching up with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. The sunrise itself wasn’t the best so I was super surprised to see that there were so many other people at the memorial for a winter sunrise. So I figured I would try to capture some of the people who were there watching the sunrise with me. In frame is my friend, Mark.

While we were shooting, Andy also created a super fun video of all of us where we each gave one sunrise tip. Mark, myself and others were all asked on the spot and the answers are pretty funny if you ask me. Let me know which one you think has the best tip! Click here to watch the video.

My camera settings for this image are F9 at 1/320th sec and ISO 640 with my Sony A7Ii and 35mm.

I’ve had this one particular image in my mind for the past week but it’s not this. I sort of, kind of captured it yesterday morning with this image, but it didn’t turn out exactly like how I wanted. So you may be seeing more of of the World War II Memorial in the near future until I get it right 🙂

But for now, I like the way this turned out.

It was a cold morning with no wind. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool water was so still, it looked like a mirror. I really love how reflective it was, especially in the trees. They look so tall and sort of spooky, but I think it works because they bring the attention down to the memorial and the bicyclist riding by.

My camera settings for this image are F5 at 1/200th sec and ISO 4000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

Now today I feel like it is the first official day of the new year. LOL, right?

I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I had to get my camera repaired when I got back from Florida last month. My camera got too wet in Taiwan and started malfunctioning a bit but I didn’t want to be without it in Destin, FL. So when I got back, I sent it out for a little TLC to make sure everything would run smoothly.

I was away from my camera for a few weeks and by the end of December, I was really missing it. When I finally got it back in the mail, I couldn’t wait to start shooting again so I woke up for the sunrise the very next day. I think I was just so eager to get back out there, that I ended up getting the very first parking spot on Parkway Drive. It’s a great spot to park if you’re ever headed to the Lincoln Memorial or Reflecting Pool.

So as I was paying for my parking, I noticed the reflections of the memorial in my car. I think it turned out pretty cool but an unexpected surprise is a glow on the rumble strips on the street. I really like how that turned out.

My camera settings for this image are F5.6 at 2 seconds and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 35mm.