ANGELA B. PAN

Home after a great trip to New York. Even after visiting the city a hundred times, each time feels like a brand new experience. Theres just so much to do and see. This time I went with my sister-in-law and my two nephews. The oldest one, Brennan mentioned he wanted to see Grand Central Terminal. We all thought it was a great idea since none of us had been there before. So we made our way over there and along the way, we stumbled upon the New York Public Library. Another place I’ve never seen or visited before!

I started out taking pictures of the exterior but then noticed a whole bunch of people walking in. They looked like tourists themselves with cameras and backpacks so I suggested we go in. I didn’t know it was an attraction all in itself and had no idea of what to expect. Man, the interior is so beautiful! I was blown away by the paintings on the ceiling and gold detailing. I feel like I just kept on looking up the whole time we were in there. It was also cool that they allowed photography. I just kept on snappin’ and snappin’ away. At one point, I think I went a little snap happy and didn’t notice that there was a rope you had to stand behind if you wanted to take pictures. I just kept on walking wherever I wanted and kept the pics flowing. So this image is actually from a point of view that I was not allowed to take. LOL Whoops. Sorry! (not sorry). When you see so much gorgeousness in one place, it’s difficult to pay attention to the rules.

Man if I lived in New York, I could totally see myself visiting this library often. I would get so many blog posts done. LOL. Talk about creative inspiration.

Ok, last cherry blossom image for a while. I know I’ve been on a cherry blossom streak but I’m lovin’ them this year and this one was absolutely incredible. This is from that same foggy morning when I lost tripod in the tidal basin also the same day that I captured this beautiful cherry tree. Actually you know what, that tree that’s almost parallel to the sidewalk is the same tree as the previous image except this is from the other side it. That morning was crazy incredible for photography. So grateful for my rain boots so I was able to stand in the middle of this gigantic puddle and capture the reflections. I’m pretty sure other photographers there was staring at me to get out of the middle of their shot. LOL. *just one more, I promise* says every photographer in the world.

But the sad part is that I should of never been able to take this picture. The flooding of the tidal basin at high tide is a growing problem that’s getting worse everyday. It’s due to the collapsing seawall that surrounds the basin. If it gets bad enough, it will be disastrous for the cherry blossom trees. Just thinking about it makes me so sad. So if you’d like to learn more about the situation or if you would be kind of enough to donate the cause, click the link here. If every visitor to the tidal basin donated just $15, then that money would really go a long way to preserve the wall and trees.

The settings for this image was F6.3 at 1/15th of a second at ISO 200 with my 16-35mm. The biggest thing I wanted out of this image was to really show off the reflections in the puddle. I think the bubbles in it were an added bonus but I’m not sure how they happened. Maybe it was me walking through the puddle? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This one was fun to shoot. My intention was to photograph the Washington Monument and cherry blossoms through the puddle and get a really cool reflection shot out of it.  I didn’t use my tripod because it doesn’t go as low as I’d want and  I couldn’t get the right angle. So I bent down to get low. I figured out the composition using the live view function on my LCD screen.  The lens was hovering right over the puddle.

While I was getting all of that sorted, I didn’t realize I was holding up people behind me. They were being nice and was  trying to avoid getting in my shot by waiting but I figured I’d let them pass because it’d be faster that way. As they were passing and without even thinking, I pressed the shutter. There was no real plan for people to walk through this shot or anything like that but I’m so glad they did. It turned out way better than anticipated.

I then posted this image Saturday night on instagram and almost immediately got a message from the girl in this image! She was saying how after they walked passed the puddle, her and her husband were talking about how cool of a shot that would of been. It’s so funny how all of these things come full circle. I love that they found themselves and I’m even more happy that they like this image.

I’d say my favorite part is the sun burst on the guy’s leg. My eyes keep on drifting to that part of the image and am super grateful how everything lined up so nicely. It looks like I had my own little cherry blossom parade but without all the balloons and streamers. Just some beautiful cherry blossoms and very nice people.

On my quest to take more cherry blossom images this year, I thought I’d leave this one for you for the weekend. This image was taken in 2012.  This is what the cherry blossoms should look like. Beautiful puffy white clouds along these delicate, windy branches. A glorious morning only shared by those who didn’t mind waking up before the sun. Ripples along the water created by a bird, a duck or slight gust of wind.

LOL I can’t keep a straight face anymore. I tried to be poetic. I’ll stop now.

Yea… So I took this in 2012, I have another version of this here but this one is a brand new one. I did not process it until now. The first time I processed the original image it was in HDR. For some reason it created all these unnecessary lines and colors along the branches called chromatic aberration. Trust me it is a pain in the B-U-T-T to get rid of. Man. I think it took me almost 3 days of fixing before I could get it just right for a client to print. So this version is vertical and it’s a little bit of a different point of view. The colors are definietly not as saturated but I much prefer this version. What about you? Which one do you prefer? Here’s the link again to the first one. 

If you’re wondering, I stopped processing my images using HDR a while ago. I just realized I was spending all this unnecessary time processing and editing that I didn’t have to be. I am really enjoying my workflow now which is only photoshop. Nothing else. If you’re interested in learning more about it, check out my video here.

Have a great weekend everyone. May the flowers be dancing above your head like the cherry blossoms in 2012 were. LOL.

Now that the snow has fallen, it’s crazy cold outside and it’s official that the cherry blossoms will not peak this year, it made me think about our trip to Japan around this time last year. Unfortunately while we were on our trip, I missed the peak bloom of blossoms in DC. Double unfortunate that we also missed the peak in Tokyo. We did see some cherry blossoms, but if we really wanted to see it, we should of stayed for a week longer. Oh well. I still loved our visit and was still able to see some beautiful flowers including this one. Do any of you guys know what this one is called? I have no clue and would not even know where to beginning to find out.

I took it in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The perfect place to go if you want to catch any kind of blooms. When you walk through the park, you almost forget you are in a major city. You don’t hear any honking horns or busy streets. You’re in your own little world, walking down paths of diverse garden areas and scenic views. If I had the opportunity, I would of loved to spend sunrise walking around by myself like I do in DC. The best part is that people come here not just to walk around and enjoy the flowers, but they will bring a blanket with a picnic baskets and hangout for a couple of hours. Kinda like what they do at the tidal basin for the cherry blossoms but it’s definietly not as crowded. I feel like when you can sit down and relax like that, you’ll get the full experience of the beautiful sakuras and these unnamed flower I photographed 🙂

By the way, if you missed it, I made a Tokyo guide. Click here if you’d like to see it.

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 🙂