ANGELA B. PAN

I recently got a Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 E-mount lens for my Sony A7rIII. For the past few weeks, it’s been the main lens that I’ve been using while going out to take pictures and I have been really enjoying it so far. My first impression was that it was kind of short and stubby, but overall a great weight for an f1.8 lens and a lens I see carrying around for years to come.

If you’ve been following my work for a little while now, you’ll know that my usual go-to lens is a 70-200mm because I love the compression that I get with it. For being a prime lens, I am most impressed by the compression that I get with the 85mm.

So here are a few sample images I’ve captured using the 85mm. All of these images were taken with my Sony A7rIII in RAW and then edited using Lightroom.

ISO 160 f2.5 1/4000th sec 85mm

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So when I was trying to come up with a blog post idea for today, I actually google previous blog posts I created on this same day but in previous years. The best part about daily blogging is that I had at least 5 other posts I could refer to. The best part was that all of them were flower images too. That just added another check mark to the consistency tracker. LOL.

This blog post is paying an homage to the one I created on March 21st of 2016. Click here to see it. That image and this one were probably taken on the same day behind the Smithsonian Castle at the Enid A Haupt Garden. The best part about it is that in the caption I wrote, “I feel like if I ever had a book about my life, this would be the cover”. Well, the story about my life has yet to be written but little did I know that less than 2 years later, I would actually write a book. CRAZY! That image didn’t end up being the cover but I felt like that was foreshadowing to what really happened.

Fast forward 2 years, swap the magnolia flowers for cherry blossoms and it’s almost been a full year that Snap DC has been published. I still can’t believe it and it’s probably one of the projects I’m most proud of. I still get messages from people about how they’re using my book and feel inspired by it. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. And if you haven’t checked it out already, I definietly talk about my favorite places to capture flowers around the Washington DC area and the Enid A Haupt garden is on that list because of beauties like these.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/400th sec ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

I just saw that Capital Weather Gang has predicted an even earlier peak bloom date for the cherry blossoms this year. It’s a little nuts that they will be peaking in less than two weeks! This makes me very, very excited. I’ve already been seeing some flowers blooming around the city while driving around. You can’t tell but I have the biggest smile on my face right now 😀

If you’re interested, I created a cherry blossom guide last year. Click here to see it.  All the rules still apply. Hope to see some of you guys there 🙂

This image was taken last year behind the Smithsonian Castle. I feel like that little area of the city is my own secret garden. I can go there in the morning and there will hardly be anyone else there. They seriously have some of the most gorgeous blooms in the city. These pink magnolias trees are some of my favorites. They’re all lined up in against this path way that goes right down the middle of the garden and they are just so stunning when you see them in person. Its also very beautiful when all the petals have fallen on the ground. Seeing the ombre effects on the pedals all spread out, it’s like you’re walking on sunshine. Cue that beautiful 80s music video.

If you want to visit the Smithsonian Gardens you will also find much more behind the Castle than just the Magnolia trees. They have tulips, roses, and cherry blossom trees. Although my personal preference is to shoot the cherry blossom trees by the Tidal Basin and Washington Monument. I love photographing those flowers against memorials. Theres something about the dainty flowers against the marble stone that’s just so beautiful to me.

So excited for spring to be here and grateful for the warm winter we had so we can enjoy the flowers so much sooner 🙂