ANGELA B. PAN

I typically read non-fiction or biographies. Books that make me feel good and inspired. Authors like Eckhart Tolle, Michael A Singer, and Brene Brown fill my bookshelf and are books that I read over and over again.

I also enjoy listening to Audible books when I’m driving or just casually walking around creating pictures. In particular, biographies where the author reads the book themselves. In that way, I feel a lot more connected to the person and comprehend them better when I can hear the inflections in their voice.

There was a point where I tried to read more books on art. But for some reason, those never really stuck with me. They weren’t about photography, but art in general. I’ve even read a book about creativity from a dance choreographer. I just didn’t connect as much with those books.

So earlier this year in March, when the Coronavirus quarantine came in place to those of us in Northern Virginia, I found way more time on my hands. I decided that I would take that time to improve my photography skills. I bought a CreativeLive membership that gave me access to such great content. Just like with Audible books, I really enjoyed listening to photographers speak about their images. I’m currently in the middle of a 24 hr Lightroom class. It so detailed and I’m learning so much every time I sit down to watch these videos.

But sometimes, I just don’t feel like being in front of a screen. I spend most of my days sitting at the desk and sometimes all I want to do is have a good book to cuddle up to and just enjoy. So, I started looking into art books again with a focus on photography.

Up until last week, I didn’t even realize how many books I’ve ordered and consumed during this quarantine. It’s so funny because I have so many more on my Amazon Wish List where I use it as a place to bookmark the books I want to get in the future. For some reason, I can’t handle having books wait for me on my bookshelf.

So in case you’re like me with a passion for photography and want to learn more about it, here are the books I’ve read in the last few months about making pictures.

The Soul of the Camera: The Photographer’s Place in Picture-Making
by David duChemin

Link on Amazon

I started out on my photography book search by googling some book recommendations and somehow I stumbled onto the fact that David duChemin was having a sale on his books. I had heard of him before and knew he was a great author. I believe out of all his books I saw on Amazon, this was the one that interested me the most. I had never imagined a camera having a soul. I’ve thought about photographs having souls, the photographer obviously has a soul, but not the camera. So I picked it up.

This is a hardback book that has more images than text and a majority of the images are portraits. I’m not usually a portrait photographer but I’ve become more and more interested in incorporating people into my images. So I thought it was interesting how he has presented his ideas. I have not studied portraiture as much so I think some of the ideas he has can apply to all genres of photography considering I have heard some of them before. Others were brand new to me.

I copied down some of the more striking quotes to me. Here are a few of my favorites:

“Perfection is counter human”

“Maybe that’s why we chase perfection. Maybe we do it because it’s so much easier to define.”

“Knowledge of the subject leads to make openness, more recognition and this makes more opportunities for strong photographs.”

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Virginia was issued the initial stay at home order on March 30th, 2020 due to the Coronavirus. It didn’t come as a surprise but it was still something that I had to mentally prepare for. Honestly, one of my first thoughts about it all was, “How am I going to go and take pictures?” Not only is photography fun for me, but it is my way of exploring places, finding stories, and expressing myself. In the past, the longest I had ever gone without taking pictures was a week. I already knew the stay at home order was going to be tough.

The world was a rapidly changing place and I was craving to capture it. Here’s are the images I created in the first two months:

Cherry Blossoms

Covid-19 really started being a concern in the Washington DC area just before the cherry blossom season. We had an unusually mild, dry winter that allowed the cherry blossoms to bloom a bit earlier in the year than they usually do. So I was excited to be able to visit the Tidal Basin with a bit less of a crowd since travel was in the process of slowing down and social distancing was starting to become a new term. I tried to go as much as I could until it started to get too crowded. When it got to be too much, I decided to just stay home and be happy with the images I was able to create. My logic was to take as many pictures as I could until it got to be unsafe and then spend quarantine editing them.

Weekdays at sunrise are really the best times to visit the Tidal Basin during cherry blossom season, Coronavirus or not.

The last day I was at the Tidal Basin when it started to get a little too crowded

The cherry blossom trees are smaller at the Washington Monument, but still just as beautiful. I tried capturing a few images from there since it’s a larger area to roam.

Cherry blossom trees are seen from the George Mason Memorial

Mt Vernon Trail/Georgetown

That weekend, Andrew and I decided that we should try to get out “one last time” before we had to stay home. We decided that the Mount Vernon trail would be a good place to go and stretch our legs. Andrew walked Frankie on the trail which allowed me to take my camera and capture a few images as well.

Considering the stay at home order was placed the very next day, I’m so glad we did this. It was a foggy morning and the trail was not as crowded as it usually is. We parked our car at Gravelly Point and headed towards the Navy Merchant Marine Memorial.

At the cherry blossom peak bloom, but the pink flowers came out a little hazy in the fog.

(L) A quick stop in Georgetown along the Key Bridge. (R) Views of the Washington Memorials are seen all along the Mount Vernon Trail.

Vienna Metro

So this is where my real pandemic images begin. It had been about 1.5-2 weeks since our walk on the Mount Vernon trail and I was going crazy. I had never purposely taken such a long break from taking pictures, and it was not making me feel good. I was really craving creativity, seeing what this new world looked like, and just to walk around with my camera. So I started locally. I mean really local since I live within a few blocks from the metro. I figured with public transportation being at an all-time low, it was probably the safest and most isolated I would ever see it.

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