ANGELA B. PAN

If you’re in the Washington DC area and you have no plans this weekend, definitely go check out the Washington Monument on the National Mall. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and they are projecting a life-size version of the Apollo 11 lunar spacecraft. It’s been going on every day since Tuesday at 9:30 pm but if you go on Friday or Saturday at 9:30 pm, 10:30 pm, or 11:30 pm, they will have a 17-minute presentation of what it was like when the spacecraft took off.

I hope to be there Friday but trust me when I say this is way cooler in person. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything projected on the Washington Monument like that and it’s just a great time sitting on the national mall and watching it go.

I captured this image on the first night of the projection on Tuesday evening. We sat right by 15th street and I don’t think a lot of people on the street knew what was going on. There were so many pedestrians, scooter riders and car drivers who just stopped in the middle of the road. At one point the police had to even come, turn on their lights to clear everyone out. So I thought I’d take advantage of the foreground and really show what it’s like being there. It sort of reminds me of Stranger Things, right? LOL

My camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 3.2 sec and ISO 100 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens

I’m happy to report that the Magnolia trees have been saved! The snow that we had last week didn’t seem to phase them much. I captured this image Friday morning behind the Smithsonian Castle at the Enid A Haupt Garden. I arrived a little bit after sunrise so I could get that beautiful early morning glow happening on the flowers. It was like walking in paradise. The birds were chirping, the wind was soft but nothing beats that early morning light.

In order to capture this image, I had to be patient. For some reason there were not a lot of people walking by or in the gardens. I stood there for a good 10 minutes before I even saw anyone else but I already had this vision in my head so I had to wait. There I was, standing in the trees looking like a flower monkey. LOL. Standing with my camera close to my face. I left my ear phones at home so I was blasting music by Drake from my phone in my pocket. This guy must have liked Drake too because he crept up behind me and scared the living sh*t out of me. I turned around and gave him a half smile and half ‘what are you doing?’ face. He just smiled back and went on his way shooting.

Obviously I had to stare him down for a little bit. LOL. And then I saw him walking to the the spot that I was waiting for someone to walk past. So I took advantage of the opportunity and finally captured the image I was looking for. Thank you fellow photographer so being so still.

My camera settings for this image is F10 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens handheld.