ANGELA B. PAN

Being a photographer, I’ve learned a lot of really random things. For example, did you know that the Washington Monument in Washington DC was built to sway with the wind? Yea, that’s just in case we get a really windy day and the tallest structure in our Nation’s Capitol won’t snap in half. Isn’t that crazy?

Well, staying in San Diego for two weeks was no different. I learned so much about the environment I was in. For example, tides. Living in Virginia, I’ve never had to be concerned with how high or low the water is but in California, this information is so crucial. After the first one or two sunsets, I found myself looking at tide charts and figuring out how all of this stuff works. To generalize, I found that low tide occurs around sunset. I don’t know if that’s true all year around, but it was true in January. So I planned all my photo ops knowing that if I wanted to capture full strength waves, it had to be at sunrise.

This image was captured right at sunset. The tide was low but there was still a whole bunch of water still on the beach from earlier in the day. It made for the perfect beach reflections. My favorite part of this image is the tallest palm tree on the right hand side. The top of the tree looks like it’s standing on a toothpick. It’s crazy because when I came here the next day at sunrise, the water was all the way up to the wall. There would have been no way I could have walked on the beach unless I had plans of getting wet in the water.

My settings for this image is F11 at 0.3 seconds at ISO 125 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…

Greetings from San Diego! and Happy New Year! This is my first official blog post of 2018. The first two were prescheduled in 2017. Kinda sneaky, eh? LOL.

So far 2018 has been nothing short of beautiful. I’m currently sitting on the front porch of our Airbnb cottage, listening to water flowing from a water fountain and staring at some beautiful oranges on our orange tree. Not sure how it could get any better than this. Since arriving, Andrew, Frankie and I have just been settling into our new environment. We went to the farmers market to pick up some fresh produce and just been sightseeing and getting to know the area a little better. We’re staying in North Park and loving every minute of it. Every morning we’ve been here has been incredibly foggy. Foggy but so fun and exciting! By mid-morning everything clears up and it’s back to enjoying the sunny skies.

I took this image yesterday in La Jolla at Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier. It was taken about an hour after sunrise and after the fog lifted from the beach. My favorite part of this image is that little hit of sun glow on the wood. To be honest, I’m not sure how busy this place gets at sunrise but somehow I feel lucky to have been the only one there. Well, me and this seagull of course.

I can’t wait to explore San Diego even more with my camera. So if you have any photo recommendations for me, let me know! Also food recommendations. I’ve already had my first official fish taco as my first meal when we arrived but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be my last 🙂

The camera settings for this image is 1/200th of a second at F5.6 and ISO 200 with my Sony a7II and 28-70mm lens.

This was definitely one of my favorite days of 2017! Obviously Washington DC is famous for it’s cherry blossoms in the spring time but this past season was sooo unique. We had a crazy warm winter which lead to a weird snow that we got in March. It was so unexpected and out of nowhere. Everybody was so confused by it, including the cherry blossoms! They had already started to bloom and all the weathermen in the area were saying how this year’s cherry blossoms weren’t going to be doing too well.

They were right and they were wrong. A lot of the trees still peaked but some trees were complete duds. The flowers themselves weren’t as vibrant as they usually are. Which was totally fine by me because I think that also mislead a lot of people and they all decided to just skip the blooms this year. It was purrrfect.

So this was taken on a particularly foggy morning where you could barely see 10ft in front of you. It was soooo awesome and so much fun to photograph. I was probably out for 4 hours or something like that just photographing the flowers. The best part was that there was barely anyone there! Usually this place would be packed. I was in a photographer’s dreamland.

My favorite part of this image is seeing the slight reflection in the tidal basin water. It’s crazy to think that just right behind that branch is the Washington Monument which is totally covered by the fog. I usually use it as a point of reference because it’s so tall but you couldn’t even see it with your naked eye. It was bananas. And I love bananas. LOL

The settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/40th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

Ok so I couldn’t say that White Sands National Monument in New Mexico was my favorite place I traveled to this past year because I LOVEDDDD Colorado. Colorado as a whole is amazing. I felt like every turn we made was something even more beautiful on the other side. I’m pretty sure I said “wow” about a million times. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to spend more time there in 2018. Theres something about those snow capped mountains that gets me so excited.

And among all the beautiful places in the Centennial state is Rocky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately there were parts of the park that was closed due to snow while we were there but still really enjoyed the park in general. That’s just another reason to go back right? This was image was taken on our first sunset there. We arrived to our walk early which meant we were able to take our time and take in beautiful views like this.

But it can be difficult at times finding balance. Photographers, let me know if you feel this way too. Usually when I’m out I feel some sort of pressure to find the right composition with the right lighting and to keep it moving so I don’t always end up with the same shots. But with all of that going on in your head, when do you find the time to just stop and enjoy the sunset? I’ve even heard of photographers saying that the only way they could really enjoy the sunset is just leaving the camera at home. I don’t agree. I think having your camera enhances the experience but there does need to be some sort of balance.

If you want to see more from our adventure, watch this youtube video. Shoutout to cheetos for being so delicious 🙂

My camera settings for this image is f/9 at 1/640th of a second at ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

I love New York. My friends ask me why I go so much, but there’s something about the city where you can be so anonymous and free to be who are that I love so much. Every turn is something new and exciting to see and you can never be bored. There’s a million and one things to do in the city and even more to eat. Which is probably reason #2 why I love going. The food is the bommmmmmb.

Over the weekend, Andrew and I took a short trip to the city. It was cold but so awesome to see all the christmas decorations and lights. We put our name down for dinner at an Italian restaurant and had an hour to kill so we figured we’d walk to Rockafeller Center to check out the Christmas Tree. You know that pre-dinner walk so you can fit more food into your belly? Anyways… Holy cow going on a Saturday night is not a good idea. It was so crowded, you could barely move. So once we made our way out of the crowd we somehow found ourselves on this closed off street in front of the Radio City Music Hall. I have no idea how I was able to get no people in this shot but I did. If you look at either side of the sidewalks you can see some people walking by but it really doesn’t depict just how many people were actually there. I don’t know how to express just how many people were there and how amazed I am for not getting any of them in this image. LOL. *pats self on back*

My camera settings for this image F4.0 at 1/13th of a second at ISO 1250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.