ANGELA B. PAN

Recently I was asked about my favorite place east of the US Capitol. First, I had to look on a map. LOL. Then found out that there were so many places that I could list – Union Station, the Arboretum, etc but it always came back to the US Capitol. Does that count? I don’t know what it is about the Capitol, but it’s such a beautiful building. My favorite is just walking around it. From all points of view its amazing. My favorite for sunrise is this spot right here. Right in front of the reflecting pool while watching the ducks swim past.

But have you ever been inside? It’s the best part, in my opinion. The Rotunda is stunning. As soon as you walk in you are overwhelmed with beauty. And then when you look up! OMG. Breath taking. So the only way to see the Rotunda is to take the Capitol tour. They’re free and highly recommended. I really should go back again soon. Last time I went was during the restoration and most of the dome was covered up. This may have sounded like a paid advertisement for the tour, but it’s not. LOL. Just a huge fan in the interior of this building.

In reality, I captured this sunrise a while ago. I think it was during cherry blossom season. I was just so consumed by the beautiful blooms that I didn’t have time to work on this image. My favorite part is definietly the sun burst coming out of the Capitol. I think it’s what really makes this image pop. The camera settings on this one was F22 for 1/13th of a second ISO 250. If I remember correctly, this was a handheld. I think it was the day after my ‘little’ tripod incident and wasn’t about risking it again.

You know, sometimes waking up for sunrise can be really tiring. Am I right?

Somehow I forgot about how little sleep I get, especially after the spring equinox, and I just keep going and going. It’s hard for me to remember to slow down sometimes. Well, I definietly felt the effects of that last week. I had woken up for sunrise 3 days in a row. I think out of all the days, 1 of them was really worth it. The day that I took this image at the Reflecting Pool right in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I was super excited to see that little bit of purple pop out of the deep blue sky. But by the end of the third day, I was EXHAUSTED. So, I’m really proud to say that on Saturday, April 22nd I slept in until 10a!!! That’s crazy! I don’t think I’ve slept that much in 10 years. I don’t know what got into me but it felt soooo good.

Ever since I got real serious about photography and ever since I’ve been waking up for sunrise, my natural body clock will wake me up about an hour after sunrise. That’s usually about 7 or 8a depending on what season we’re talking about. The most annoying part is that once I am up, I can’t fall back to sleep. If you had known me when I was in college, I would of thought that was the craziest, most ridiculous thing ever and it would never happen to me.  I purposely made it so I had all afternoon/night classes and I’d sleep in for as long as I’d want. Usually that mean waking up at 11a or 12p. To think about how much I used to sleep in really makes me jealous, but its all good. It’s all a part of growing up right? Becoming a real adult? or something like that.

Shout out to my friend, Zack who had been texting me to meet up for sunset on this day. Although we were on two very different sides of the national mall shooting (I was by the reflecting pool and he was at the US Capitol), I would of never have gone out on this day if it weren’t for him. It’s funny because we were texting each other pictures of what we were seeing in the sky the entire time. Once the color actually broke through the clouds, it was dead silent between the both of us until it was all over. LOL.

So I was sitting by the reflecting pool, mostly concentrating on the sky. But it was awesome because these little kids came up next to me with crackers and were feeding the ducks. *note to self, always bring crackers when taking pictures* So my attention went from the sky to getting the ducks in the foreground of the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial. I got some pretty cool shots which I’ll post later. Next, I’m not sure what happened but I turned around to see that the sky behind had really blown up. I mean you usually see the sunset colors behind the Lincoln Memorial, but all the action was behind the Washington Monument right at the WWII Memorial. Luckily, I had some time to set up a shot. But it didn’t last long. I’m glad I was able to capture what I did.

Camera settings for this shot was F5 with a 15 second exposure at ISO500. I was using my Ice neutral density filter for this one so I was able to capture the saturated colors and any people who were in my way were blurred out. The only people you see were the ones who were standing there for longer than 15seconds.

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. This image was shot last fall. See the other version of this same sunrise here.

I met up with my friend Sara to take this image. She told she had never been to DC for sunrise and we immediately had to change that. So the next morning we met up super early in the morning. I remember walking around the National Mall with her and we were talking about how it was so nice to be taking pictures. But one of the best parts was that you’re up so early in the morning that no one else is really awake. You have so much time to accomplish other things before even having to worry about calling anyone or making any kind of appointments. Just a nice way to start your morning by walking around and doing something creative. Growing up, I was never an early bird. But now that I’ve been waking up for sunrise images for the past 6 years that I can’t help but wake up early now. Even without an alarm.

In other news, I’ve been thinking lately that I need to make an updated youtube video. What do you think? It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my gear. I’ve uploaded quite a few videos about new gear that I’ve bought but those were mostly first impression/unboxings. Never really gave my opinion on what I think about the equipment now. Also, I’ve gotten a few things without tell you guys as well too. So would you be interested in an updated gear video? I think it’d be fun. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll try to add that into the video as well.

To be honest, it may be another week or two until I actually make it. I have another video in the works before that one. You’re going to LOVE it.

Sometimes waking up early can be a struggle. The night before I took this, I was out to dinner with a few of my girlfriends. We were having so much fun catching up that we ended up staying out later than we usually would of so that meant I went to bed later than I usually do. Before we even went to bed, Andrew asked if I was going to wake up for sunrise. I said “I’m going to wake up and check the weather”. Well the next morning the app on my phone said it was mostly cloudy (usually great weather for photos) but I sooo did not want to wake up. I was tired and because the weather channel app also said it was 29 degrees out, I double did not want to wake up. After about 20 minutes of laying there and pretending like I was looking at important stuff on instagram and my email, I finally rolled out of bed, put on two pairs of pants, 3 top layers and off to the city I went. I decided to go to the US Capitol because I felt like I haven’t been there for a long time. With the inauguration last month, that place was pretty crowded with construction and people for about 3 months prior.

Once I arrived at the Capitol, it seemed like all the cold air went away. All the sleepiness went away. And I just felt pure excitement. The pink started to really show through the clouds and the air was so still that the reflection in the reflecting pool was perfect. I’m so glad I got there early because by the time I drove home the skies had turned grey. Overall, timing was perfect for the pink sunrise and the clouds were perfect for a nap afterwards 🙂

Isn’t it weird how when you look at a picture and you can automatically remember when, where, how you were shooting it? I so remember this day like it was yesterday but it wasn’t. It was in June 2016. It had been a super hot and humid day. I remember specifically going out to the city because it was supposed to storm later that night and was I hoping that the sunset clouds would look cool. In real life they were beautiful, but it wasn’t until I looked at my LCD screen did I notice the kind of zig zag shape they were creating. It was even more noticeable in the reflection in the reflecting pool water. The clouds were moving kind of fast so I slapped on my Ice neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed and it created this cool motion effect in the image. Also, there weren’t a lot of people out walking around so it made everything so clean and easy. The quote “If you can’t handle the heat, then get out of the kitchen” comes to mind because I also remember just sitting there with my tripod sweating, wishing I could just into the reflecting pool. All those memories from one 30 second exposure. Pretty cool.

In other news, Happy Valentines day!!! Hope you are spending this beautiful Tuesday with someone you love. Andrew and I are keepin’ it low key this year. After work, we’ll probably grab a pizza and watch some netflix. A heart shape pizza, obviously 🙂 I found the perfect card for him from Target over the weekend. It’s of this couple holding hands. On the woman’s shirt it says “Artsy” and on the man’s shirt it says “Fartsy”. LOL. Its like the card company knew our relationship. Just Kidding. Not really. HAHA.