ANGELA B. PAN

To be honest my personal life has been busy, espcially in the past week or so. So busy to the point that I almost forgot that we’re leaving on a short getaway tomorrow. Around Thanksgiving time, Andrew and I booked a trip to Orlando with our cousins and I haven’t really thought about it much since then. But at this point, I can’t think of anything better. I can’t wait to soak up the Florida sun and spend a couple days on rides and rollercoasters. I’ll have my camera and drone with me, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be shooting. I hope to get at least one cool shot of the fireworks at the Disney castle, other than that I have no real plans.

So if you have any Orlando, Disney, or Universal Studios recommendations, please let me know! It’s my first time visiting since I was a child. You better believe that I’ll be rocking Minnie Mouse ears though! I can’t wait <3

This image has nothing to do with Florida but it does put me in a relaxing mood which is what I’m looking forward to the most on our trip. I took this one morning in La Jolla, San Diego. There weren’t as many sea lions out but for some reason they were all gathered on this rock. So I sat down and watched them for a good 20 minutes. The sun was just coming up and I loved feeling the wind in my hair. I knew I wanted to place myself in this image some how so I could remember the moment and what it was like to be there. So out came my legs and I took a shoefy. Don’t yell at me, but I never remember to tie my shoes until I really have to. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/50th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

If you haven’t checked it out already, I posted a new vlog on my youtube channel last week! Just a few clips of our trip to San Diego plus I added some of footage I captured from the drone. I’m having so much fun flying now and becoming a lot more comfortable with it. Over the weekend I flew a little bit with my cousin, Brian and he taught me how to take off and land from my hand! SOOO COOL! So if you haven’t checked out the video yet, click here to watch our trip to San Diego. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This image was taken on one of the many foggy mornings we had in SoCal. I will admit it was a little difficult to find compositions at times with all the fog and not being able to see too far ahead, but I love the way this one turned out. I think my favorite part is seeing the bird’s reflections in the sand. It’s so simple but I just can’t stop looking at it. The lines in the sand really help draw you in as well. I don’t know about you, but I always associate southern California with sunshine so it was interesting to see the other side of it. However next time I go, I would like some sun. This is the second time in the row when there was a whole bunch of fog. You’d think I was in San Francisco or something!

The settings for this image is F18 at 0.6 seconds with ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

PS I heard we’re expecting some snow this week in Washington, DC. plus the super moon! I’m really looking forward to going out and shooting this week. Good times ahead!

While I was shooting the sunset on Pacific Beach in San Diego, CA, my eyes were strictly on the water. I was watching people run in and out of the ocean and the waves were glowing in the sunlight when Andrew stopped me and told me we had to go watch this bubble guy. I had no idea what he was talking about but I stopped shooting and started following him to the boardwalk. Apparently this guy comes out everyday to create these bubbles. I don’t even think he had a tip jar. He just does it for the pure joy of it which is so awesome. And he had a huge crowd surrounding him as well. Kids of all ages wanted to check out this bubble guy.

We only stood there for a few minutes but you can tell he was making everyone so happy. But don’t be fooled, these bubbles were no joke. These kids got so soaked when they bursted on top of them. It was kind of funny. He even had some dogs barking at him too.

My favorite part of this image is the actual bubble itself. I love looking at the left hand side where it has already burst and in the center, above the sun where it has so many light variations.  It’s so interesting to look at the different ‘stages’ of the bubble. But I also really like the children that are in it. They add so much to the story, especially with their hands.

Props to this bubble guy for doing this everyday. I’m sure he has so many stories to tell just from standing in this one spot.

My settings for this image is F/25 at 1/125th of a second and ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and my 28-70mm lens.

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.

One of my best friends from college, Neena is amazing. She is always so fun to hangout with and definietly knows how to have a good time. One of the things that I appreciate the most about her is that when she hears a new song that she thinks I’ll like, she’ll texts me a link. But this girl somehow hears all the hot new jams before anyone I know. I love it. And she knows me and the kind of music I like so well. Usually when she texts me a song I get so excited and play it on repeat for a week straight.

So a couple of months ago, she texted me this song by Camila Cabello called ‘OMG’. From the first second I heard it, I loved it. I downloaded it immediately and it has been on my playlist ever since. Such a fun song to dance to! Plus I think that Camila looks so beautiful on the album cover. It’s such a simple image but I love everything about it. I remember looking at it and thinking it’d be cool to have an image like that.

Fast forward to this past weekend when Andrew and I were walking around Balboa Park in San Diego. It was my very first time visiting the park and was blown away by how big and beautiful it was. It was something I was not expecting at all. While walking to the botanical garden, I noticed the shadows these palm trees were casting onto the side of a building. I knew that this was my chance for my Camila Cabello album cover. LOL! Trying to recreate it from memory, this is what Andrew and I came up with. He shot the image but I told him exactly how to do it and frame it. I’m just glad it’s all in focus 🙂 LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F11 at 1/125th of a second and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Last summer when I was in San Diego, my friend, Sue and I spent a crazy amount of time at the La Jolla Cove. It was not intentional, it just happened. We had just finished driving cross country from northern Virginia and we were exhausted! Obviously we made stops along the way but our average drive everyday was about 8-9 hours. So by the time we arrived to our final destination in San Diego, we just wanted to chill!

We only had one full day in San Diego so we wanted to make the most of it. We spent the morning at the La Jolla farmers market sampling some of the finest vegan cuisine that SoCal had to offer and then walked over to the cove. That is when we spotted all the sea lions and seals on the rocks and it was pretty much over from there. There were so many of them! Neither one of us could not stop squealing at how cute the animals were and accidentally ended up spending more than 3 hours at the cove. LOL oh well. It was a much needed break and a great way for us to relax.

So this time around I knew that I had to go back and see my friends again. There weren’t as many of them out as there was last time I was here, but it was still cute none the less. They look like they’re loving that early morning light. I love watching them swim around, climb on the rocks and interact with each other. It’s like they are wet dogs. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F10 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

Click here to watch my video from our road trip. It was a blast and a half!