ANGELA B. PAN

Another one from Saturday morning’s amazing sunrise.

I was walking up the Lincoln Memorial steps when I just had to turn around and appreciate the morning light. It felt so good on my back that I wanted to see what it looked like and I saw this scene. My favorite part of it all is the light that is shining right down the middle of the image.  My eye keeps going to the huge shadow it created of the guy walking down the steps. It looks like the shadow is as tall as the Washington Monument!

I don’t usually put a lot of sunbursts in to my images, but I do shoot them a lot. Sometimes I feel like they can be a bit overwhelming and may take away from the image. In this particular one, I think it works well. I think it helps create the mood of the light shining down on the reflecting pool and everyone walking around it. I also think it’s interesting how the light effects the people depending on where they stand. The people who are closest to the reflecting pool look so teeny tiny, I love all the layers in this image.

On a side note, how about all that rain and snow we got? Please magnolias. Please stay warm and intact. I’m not so worried about the cherry blossoms. I think they’ll be fine. A similar weather situation happened last year where we got ice and freezing temperatures right before they were about to bloom and they were fine, for the most part. In some ways it was kind of better because it deterred a lot of people from visiting the Tidal Basin. All good with me! But I’m not so sure about how well the magnolias will do since they’ve already started blooming 🙁

The settings for this image is F22 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm handheld.

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning on meeting a friend for a quick get together. Something informal but still fun. So when it came down to picking the place to meet, I chose the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art. For real, if you’re in the DC metro area and you need a good place to talk, I’d definietly recommend this place. We sat at the benches right around the water fountain under some shade and it was perfect. The meeting ended quickly and I still had time on my parking meter so I decided to walk around the National Gallery of Art for a little bit.

The East Wing has always been my favorite. It’s the modern art part of the gallery and every time I go, I fall more and more in love with this space. It is just so beautiful. The light that comes in through the glass roof in the middle of the day along with all the shadows they create are so amazing. Just every corner of this wing is spectacular.

It has come to the point where I come to the gallery so often that I never try to see it all at once. I’ll pick a floor and take my time there. Really soaking in everything the exhibit has to offer. Then I’ll probably go to the rooftop terrace if it’s a really nice day and then head home. I never feel rushed and it makes it feel brand new every time I visit if I see something new. Regardless, it’s always inspiring and a great way to spend an hour or so.

The settings for this image is F7/.1 at 1/125th of a second ISO 160. Obviously it was a nice and sunny day out so I was able to capture everything with a low ISO.

About two weeks ago, I visited Glenstone Museum again. My second time visiting but just as great as the first. This time however, I was really hoping to see Split Rocker in full bloom, which he was and it made me so happy. I circled him about 3 times while smiling before we had to go on with the tour. It’s crazy to see such a huge statute full of flowers. Props to Jeff Koons.

But I think my unexpected favorite was the Richard Serra piece called Sylvester. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much, but as you circle to the inside, you get all these amazing variations of sunlight and shadows. Also the way that the piece divides the sky is very cool too. I bet it’d look amazing during a really puffy, cloudy day or even a nice sunrise/sunset.

And it’s actually much bigger than you think it is but doesn’t take much effort to walk through, if that makes sense? Once you’re totally inside, the acoustics in the center are totally amazing. You can totally feel your voice echo inside you. Kinda surreal. But I can also see how it’d be distracting if you were trying to hold a real conversation.

So walking out, I noticed this form. Again it was the shadows and the lines that really drew me into this scene. The sun flare from the lens was an added bonus that adds a little bit more interest into this piece. I don’t know, abstracts like this isn’t something I usually photograph or post. What do you think of it?

If you ever want to have a unique museum experience, make sure to book a tour at Glenstone. It’s privately owned so you have to have a reservation but it’s completely free. Totally worth it, especially if it’s a really nice day and you can enjoy the outdoor sculptures.

My settings for this image was F/9 at 1/160th of a second at ISO 200.

If you’ve ever been to Moab, Utah, which is your favorite park to visit? Is it Arches National Park? Is it Canyonlands National Park? or Dead Horse Point State Park? Right now, it’s hard for me to decide Every time I think about any of the parks, I just think about how hot it was. We were only in Moab for one full day but it was extremely hot and cloudless the whole time. As seen above. But if you ask Andrew, his was Canyonlands NP.

However, I wish we could of spent more time in Arches. We were there for sunrise and had a great time walking around some of the shorter trails like Devils Garden and Fiery Furnace Viewpoint. The whole plan was to spend sunrise and sunset shooting Arches and visit the other parks during the day. When it came time for sunset, we drove up to the entrance and found out it was was closed due to road construction. Womp Womp. There was no way to get in. I was hoping for this epic shot of Delicate Arch at sunset and we were going to stay to shoot the stars. So this whole trip, I didn’t not get to see Delicate Arch which seems like the main attraction 🙁 Now I have a reason to go back.

So this image was shot at sunrise at Courthouse Towers. I was super impressed by all the rock formations and the shadows that they were creating. I even heard a lady giving a tour while I was shooting this saying that there were over 2,000 arches in the park. Thats nuts-o. I think there are some arches in this image that the national park would consider an arch. Do you see them?

This was shot at f/11 at 1/160th of a second ISO 250.

Am I the only one who never knows how to pack clothes for New York City? I mean you check the weather and it will say it’s 80 degrees. So obviously I’m going to pack t-shirts and tank tops.  But once you’re there, it actually feels like 65. It’s the most deceiving thing ever. All the tall buildings and walking through the shadows make it feel so much colder than it actually is. But above all else, sneakers is an absolute must. Props to all the women who walk around the city all day in high-heels. You have my respect, big time.

This image was taken en route to Grand Central Terminal from the New York Public Library. One of my favorite parts of walking through the shadows of all the tall buildings is seeing the different kinds of reflections. Reflections in puddles, reflections in glass windows, etc.  It’s almost like a game to find some really cool ones. But I thought this one was particularly cool because you can see so many different building reflections in this one building. The sun burst to the side of it was just an added bonus that I didn’t even notice until I was shooting. No idea what the name of this building is but I believe it was on 42nd street if you wanted to check it out for yourself.

My camera settings for this image was F22 1/15th of a second at ISO 200. The only reason my aperture was so small was because I wanted to make sure I could get the sun flare to be as large as possible.

So while you’re walking around the city, definietly make sure to look up AND down whenever possible. You won’t be disappointed. You may find special treasures like this that make you really happy 🙂

In between shooting cherry blossom sunrises, I made my way over to the National Arboretum this past weekend. I met up with a bunch of friends from IGDC . (If you don’t know them, you should check them out on instagram especially if you’re in the DC area.) It was really cool because it also World Wide Instameet weekend and the theme was ‘kindness’. So IGDC and the Humane Rescue Alliance in DC teamed up to show off some adoptable dogs. I had a BALL hanging out with all the dogs. There were so many of them. The best was when one dog would get really excited and then get all the other dogs excited and watching them bark at each other. I don’t know why, but I think its so funny. Taking the group shot at the end was particularly enjoyable to see the dogs “together”. Unfortunately, Frankie couldn’t make it 🙁

This was shot in the middle of the day. I want to say around 11:30. These columns sit on top of a hill in the middle of the arboretum and the first thing I noticed were the shadows they were creating in the grass. I quickly changed my lens to the 16-35mm so I could get it all. That’s when I noticed the sun flare. I really think that sun is there for that extra added bonus. However, I think if I were to redo this shot again, I would of tried to get a dog or a person in the the middle of the columns or in the foreground somewhere. Oh well. I’m still really happy with how this turned out.

The settings for this image were F22 1/25 of a second ISO 100. I had to shoot small just to exaggerate the flares coming out of the sun a little more.