ANGELA B. PAN

Like I said last week, the hike up old rag was strenuous. It was hot, humid and I was sweating all over the place. In total it took us about 6 hours to complete. You know you’re on top of the mountain when you have these huge rocks you have to climb. I had no idea that it would require so much upper body strength. Shout out to my cousin, Brian who I’ve been working out with 3-4 times a week. I feel like all that working out prepared me for this hike and this hike only. LOL. I had done the trail before but always needed assistance climbing up the rocks. This time I didn’t need any! I came home with a lot of bruises, but at least I didn’t need anyone’s hand to help pull me up 🙂

We were super lucky though. Right when we were done with the rock climbing part and we were about to reach the part where you just walk down the mountain, it started pouring. Like lightning, thunder, soaking wet! I can not imagine what it was like for the people who had to rock climb in all that rain because it was intense! But for us walking down it felt so good. I feel like it relieved us of the heat, all the steaminess of our sweat and humidity went away and it just felt so refreshing. Luckily, I packed a rain sleeve for my camera so all my electronics in my backpack was safe. I didn’t even think to bring one for myself. As long as my camera was ok, I’ll be ok.

We ended up walking a good 3-4 miles in non-stop rain. It wasn’t too bad but neither one of us wanted to stop for a break so it went by super quickly.

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/50th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

Speaking of a lot of images, over Memorial Day weekend my cousins, Andrew and I went on a hike in the Shenandoah Mountains. It was amazing. Andrew and I had done the Old Rag hike twice already but it’s been a couple of years. I kinda forgot what it was like.

This time it was hot and super humid. *note to self, don’t wear grey shirts when going on a hike. You’ll get very visible sweat stains and it’s not cute.*

I don’t remember it being as strenuous as it was but the views are hard to beat. I took so many pictures during the hike that it’s going to be a while before I’ll be able to get through them all. I did post a few on my instagram stories a couple of days ago and this one was one of my favorites. We were on top of the mountain when there was a place where you could either climb down these huge boulders, gently and safely ORRRRR jump like this guy did. I chose the first option but while I was waiting for everyone else to cross, I saw this guy with his running start. I was able to get into position quick enough to capture his leap. I love it because it sort of looks like he’s walking on an invisible tight rope. I checked my camera to see if I got the shot, looked up and he was gone. He must have been running to his friends or something because it was literally dust behind him. I wanted to get his email address so I could send him the whole series of jump, but oh well. Maybe next time.

In order to capture the jump, I had to put my camera on burst mode. My camera settings for this image was F5.0 at 1/800th of a second and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm.

I think I say this every Friday but just for consistency I’m going to say it again. YAY! So excited for the weekend. I don’t have much going on but it’s just a great time to catch up on the things that I didn’t get a chance to do during the week.

Here are 3 things I was grateful for this week…

1. My super awesome graphic designer, Anelise. She rocks.
2. My super awesome cohorts in the Arcanum. Seriously makes my day to socialize with such amazing photographers everyday.
3. A new public speaking opportunity in February. More about that soon…

A beautiful sunset along Skyline Drive. I was so lucky to be able to capture this sunset with so much color because just a few minutes later it started POURING rain!

This image was taken last year in the Shenandoah Mountains at sunrise. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of a sun because of all the fog, but I’m really starting to get into these fog images. Lately I’ve been noticing myself hoping for it.

I had to post this image because I had a fail this morning. I tried going out for some sunrise images but as soon as I got to my location it started raining, HARD. So, I plan on going out tomorrow and hopefully bringing you guys something very new. In the mean time, I really like the abstractness of this image.

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This was taken early on a Monday morning, the same day I took Mountain Fog. The fog was so thick, it was hard to see anything. Driving very slowly up the mountain I was worried about how my pictures were going to come out. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the outcome. I love the subdued blue in the image.