ANGELA B. PAN

Before we left to Orlando, I had an itchy throat. I spent most of last week in bed when we got back. I’m not sure if it was the flu or not. We don’t actually own a thermometer but it was horrible to say the least. I have no idea what happened last Tuesday because I slept through it all. But I started to feel a lot better on Saturday and even better on Sunday. Funny how I was good to go by the weekend 🙂

Anyways, we got some pretty decent snow on Saturday. It didn’t stick for too long but I knew I wanted to go out on Sunday morning to shoot the sunrise. Usually when we get crazy weather like we did on Saturday, the sunrise on the next day will be just as crazy. And it was!!! It felt so good to be outside again. I met up with my friend, Birch and spent the morning walking around the Lincoln Memorial and National Mall.

It was sort of foggy and hazy but it was going in and out as well. I don’t know, its really hard to describe because it was weather like I’ve never seen before. But if I had to use one word to describe it, I’d call it “beautifuuullll” because it created this amazing glow. The best of the best glow was down the line of trees that run along side the Reflecting Pool. I love how it enclosed all the light at the end of the “tunnel”. I also really like how the World War II memorial is at the end of this walkway but you can barely make it out. Seriously this city looks so different everyday.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/100th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and Birch’s 70-200mm lens because I didn’t have mine with me 🙂

Not too long ago, Budget Travel reached out to me because they wanted to use one of my images for their blog post. They were writing a piece on the best places in the country to see the sunrise and obviously, Washington DC made the list (because it really is one of the best places!). So I was honored that they wanted to use one of my images.

Click here if you want to check out the article.

You may have remembered when I took this image. It was at the same time as this one. Isn’t it crazy how different it looks with a vertical crop vs. a horizontal crop? They were obviously taken a couple of minutes a part but they look so different to me. What about you? Do you see a difference? If so, which one do you prefer? Anyways, I love the way that this one turned out as well. I think it’s so interesting to see the cloud formations behind the trees. The reflection from the reflecting pool could not be any better!

On a side note, we just got back from our trip to Orlando yesterday. I had a blast! A much needed vacation after a pretty stressful time in life. I’m ready to get back out there and shoot! More sunrises and sunsets like this please <3 I’ll be back home for a little while now. No real trips planned as of yet but I’m getting the itch to go somewhere in springtime. If you know of any cool places to go to, let me know. Especially places with some beautiful flowers!

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 1/30th of a second at ISO 250 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens on a tripod.

Thanks again Budget Travel!

Somedays you get real lucky with sunrises. Somedays you don’t. This day I was EXTREMELY lucky.

I woke up a little bit earlier than I usually do and headed down to the US Capitol. Since it was kinda cold out, I decided to park on the street where I could keep my eye on the sunrise at all times but not actually have to get out of the car 🙂 I don’t remember what I was doing on my phone, probably on instagram or watching a youtube video or something when I noticed the sky change a little bit. I quickly jumped out of the car, grabbed my tripod out of the trunk and ran over to the reflecting pool. By the time I arrived, the sky had turned a crazy, vibrant color of pink. It was honestly one of the most exciting sunrises I had seen in a real long time. I grabbed a few shots and debated if I wanted to stay by the water or move closer to the Capitol Building itself. I noticed the water level was unusually high so I decided to stay by the water and take some images from right above. With it being so high and the weather being kind of windy, it was making the reflections dance a bit. I thought it was really cool.

But my favorite part of the whole morning was running into my friend, Erikson. He was on his way to work when the sunrise stopped him in his tracks. We watched the sunrise together and he even got this pretty cool behind the scenes shot of me. Click here if you want to check it out. It was so great just to sit and watch the sky with him. The color didn’t last long but it was so worth the early morning wake up call. I’m in love with how this image turned out <3

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/10th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7Ii and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

We left to California at the right time. As soon as we left, Washington DC experienced a serious cold snap. My parents and friends were texting saying how they were going to come find us in San Diego because it was just so back home. I’m talking single digits with wind on some days. I felt so bad for them while I was sitting on our Airbnb’s patio staring at orange trees in 75 degree weather. LOL.

But in all honesty, I was a little jealous. With extreme weather like that you’re going to get some awesome pics. I saw so many of my instagram friends posting some really unique images like people walking on the frozen reflecting pool. What the what? I want to walk on the reflecting pool! That looks so cool. I even saw someone riding a bike and ice skating on the reflecting pool. That’s crazy! If I had ice skates, I’d be allllll about that. Triple axels and everything! HAHA JK. The most I can do is go backwards.

It’s all good though.

So when we got back, I was really hoping to get a little taste of it. I woke up yesterday knowing that my first sunrise back in DC had to be the Reflecting Pool. When I arrived, I was so excited to see all the ice chunks but I didn’t dare step on it because I wasn’t sure if it was still safe or not. Look at me being all cautious in the new year. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F10 at 2 seconds and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens on my gitzo tripod.

PS Every time I write “LOL” its because I’m really just making myself laugh while writing blog posts. Let me know if I should stop doing that because I think I’m funny so…

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Which ever holiday you celebrate, I hope you got to spend this past weekend with the ones you love the most.

My holiday celebrations started last Friday and has continued everyday since. It was so great to see so many family members and friends. But I’m not going to lie, it was a pretty hectic weekend with a lot of eating. Diet starts tomorrow! …. or January 2nd 🙂 And I can’t get this song out of my head. What is your favorite holiday song?

I took this image one morning earlier this month. I knew I had to have something prepared for this day on the blog and I wanted to photograph the US Capitol Christmas tree since I already had an image of the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House. Somehow I forgot my tripod so this is completely hand held. I was sitting along the edge of the reflecting pool and held my camera as close to the water as I could get without it getting wet. It was pretty nerve wracking given my previous experiences with water and cameras but I’m glad I was able to get it done. Soon after I captured this moment, all the lights turned off and you weren’t able to see the Christmas Tree at all. I am lucky I got this when I did.

The camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 0.4 seconds and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm. Pretty impressive for a 0.4 second hand held shot, right? I think so! LOL

Again, Happy Holidays to you! Now is the time to relax and just enjoy the winter season. Have you come up with your 2018 goals yet? I have a few in mind…

You know, I photograph Washington DC a lot. LOL. A lot of the time it’s at sunrise. And lately there hasn’t been a real sunrise that has gotten me excited to shoot, except for this day! I woke up a little earlier than usual and made my way down to the National Mall. Driving in I knew it was going to be a real good one. It’s really hard to say how, but I can just tell by looking at the clouds. Needless to say, I was super hyped.

I knew right away that it was going to be a great photo day. I wanted to make sure that my feet kept on moving as I walked through the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I try my best to experiment with different compositions at the places I go to the most. I really don’t like going home with a SD card full of the same exact images. So the only way to prevent that from happening is to keep on moving. But something was calling me back to the Reflecting Pool. I knew it was going to be THE place to capture this amazing sky.

As soon as I turned the corner from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I stood in awe. It was AMAZING. My favorite is seeing the perfect cloud reflections in the water. In order to capture it all, I had to get real low. No tripod, just balanced my camera on the ground and hoping my winter shivers didn’t move the camera too much. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!

The settings for this image is F8 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.