ANGELA B. PAN

Andrew, Frankie, our cousins and I have officially made it to San Diego and were loving it. It’s so nice to be able to spend some winter days on the west coast. Before this we were in Joshua Tree National Park and it was so nice but our trip was way too short. But I’m glad we even got to go at all. It has always been one of those places that I try my best to visit, but every time the opportunity came up, there was so reason why we couldn’t go. So I’m glad we finally made it.

This image was taken last year around this time in La Jolla. I seriously could spend all day photographing and watching these Sea Lions. It’s one of my favorite things about visiting San Diego. It’s just so peaceful and a sight you would never see in Washington. This little guy was definietly hamming it up for the camera.

I’ve heard seeing the sea lions can really be a hit or miss. I’m lucky (knock on wood) that I’ve never not seen them. This image was taken at the La Jolla Cove. Every time I’ve seen them, they have been there or at Children’s Pool just in case you are planning your own visit.

I remember taking this image and purposely tried to shoot at a low perspective. I really wanted to at least get this little guy’s face in the reflection. You can see I got maybe a little bit of his mouth and that’s it. LOL. It’s ok though, I’m sure there will be plenty more opportunities on this trip to try to capture what I have envisioned.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/200th sec and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm zoom lens.

It’s pretty well known by now that I’m an early bird. Even if I don’t go out to take sunrise pictures, I still like to get an early jump on the day. I hate being late to meetings and I hate feeling like I’m rushed. I’m a very go with the flow type person and would rather not worry about looking at the clock all the time.

But to be honest if I’m not out taking pictures early in the morning and it’s one of those lazy days where I don’t have much going on, I’m usually just taking my time eating breakfast with a face mask on. The last thing on my mind is exercising. LOL. But props to everyone who do wake up early in the morning to work out. It’s very unusual to be at the National Mall and not see a runner or someone on a bike. Even in below freezing weather you’ll see people! Good for them.

I honestly think that’s one of the best parts about Washington. I love seeing how active people are. It’s inspiring. Plus they can make for great subjects when no one else are around 🙂

I was standing on top of the Lincoln Memorial steps when I captured this. I just happened to run into my friend, Andy while out taking pics and we had stopped at the top of the steps to catch up. I saw the bicyclist coming from a pretty good distance so I lined up my composition and just waited for him to ride by. I was surprised to have captured the runner as well. I didn’t see her at all. Glad she was there for that little extra pop of color.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/500th sec at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

So after I photographed the Korean War Memorial for a bit, I walked over to the Reflecting Pool to check things out. Since we had snow the day before, I was really hoping for a little bit of fog. Lately, I’ve been loving the reflecting pool for this exact reason. I love the way the fog gets trapped around the trees of the pool so I wanted to make sure I was at the right place at the right time. Well, it didn’t happen.

But this happened! I love how simple this image is. I shot it with my 70-200mm at 200mm standing on the top of the steps that lead to the reflecting pool. I’m not sure if it’s easy to tell the location if you’re not familiar with the Washington DC area and that’s the reason why I like it so much. It looks like it could be almost anywhere. The reflection of the Washington Monument perfectly cuts the image in half and the two people standing there is absolutely perfect. I also love how compressed the image is and you can’t even see the stairs. It’s as if we’re on two totally different platforms and you have to leap down to get close to the water.

LOL I love how these past few posts turned into a chronological description of what I did in the span of 2 days. Not intentional but it will be very interesting to look back on.

PS speaking of looking back, 2018 is almost over! If you haven’t already, check out the 2019 Dynamic DC calendar. I LOVE the way it turned out this year. I don’t have many left so get them while they last. And can we talk about how much I love February’s image OMG <3

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/1250th sec ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm ultra zoom lens.

Happy Veterans day! Living in the Washington DC area and photographing the monuments in the National Mall has definietly taught me to appreciate all the service and sacrifice veterans go through every single day. I could not be more thankful for my beautiful life right now and a large part has to do with them. Whether it’s from talking one-on-one with veterans, seeing all the trinkets left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during Memorial Day, or just seeing them ride at Rolling Thunder, I have a special place in my heart to all the men and women who have done so much for me and our country. I feel like the best way that I could possible honor them is by going through my images and collecting some of my favorite images of the war memorials. It’s my way of honoring such the brave men and women of our country.

The image above was taken in December 2012. I was lucky enough to have all the elements lined up: fog, holiday wreaths, amazing sunrise. I’m so honored that this image has been shared over 100,000 times and the reaction and messages I have received from it has been nothing short but amazing. Thank you so, so much.

In the beginning of 2012, I created this image on a cold winter morning in January. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the colors were in the sky and I’m so grateful to have been at the right place at the right time.

A unique look at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I honestly think that it’s one of my favorites. I love the reflection of the sky and Washington Monument. My favorite is that little peak-a-boo elements of the trees in the background.

I’m sure you can tell by now that my favorite time to photograph the monuments is at sunrise. It’s just so quiet and peaceful. I’m usually the only one there and it allows me the time to really appreciate the monuments for all that they are. I love how the sun is peeking out over the WWII memorial.

Thank you today and everyday, Veterans. This is a small token of my forever appreciate to you.

The other day I went out on clear morning to go photograph the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial. The sunrise wasn’t great so I actually spent most of my time inside the Memorial. I love that time of day when the sun rises a little bit above the horizon and the whole memorial is glowing orange. It may only last 15-20 minutes but that whole time is seriously magical.

I brought this reflective prism with me so I thought I’d test it out and see what it looked like. It took a little while for me to figure out compositions I liked but overall I love the final look. So in order to capture something different I held the prism up to my lens, pretty much right next to it and kept turning it around and trying new things to come up with these. It definietly makes you see the Lincoln Memorial in a whole new perspective now. What do you think about them? What do you think about using props in your images in general? I don’t know if I have ever really been a big fan of them before but this prism is really making me think twice about it. It just adds an extra element of interest to a scene that has been photographed a million times.

Also, which one is your favorite?

My camera settings for all these images are the same. They were photographed at F5.6 1/50th sec at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Here’s something interesting. The other day I was having trouble sleeping so I started surfing the internet. One thing lead to another and I ran across this article from the Google blog. I’m a month late, but I thought this was interesting enough to share. Turns out google now can credit the creator of images in google image searches! This is such amazing news. I personally know that a lot of my images have been shared without proper credit on social media so I can only imagine where they have ended up.

Click here to read the google article.

Like, yes I did take that image of the Tidal Basin at sunrise. Thank you google for the image credit! LOL. This image was taken on the same day as this image and this image. Isn’t it amazing how much the sky can change in about 30 minutes? The image previously blogged were when I first arrived at the Tidal Basin however this one was taken when I was about to leave. The water level was still really high but the it was the cloud formations that really caught my eye at that time. By the time the sun came out, it turned all the clouds orange. An explosion of color like no other!

My camera settings for this image is F16 at 1/125th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.