ANGELA B. PAN

And then there was that time I went to Maine for the first time. Man, talk about a cute place to visit and I’m sure to live. I felt so happy while being there. Everything was so nautical and clean. Everyone was so pleasant. We spent most of our time in Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor but I’d totally go again to spend more time in Portland and other areas of Maine. And those lobster rolls!!! *Praise hands emoji* I definietly need to spend more time with those lobster rolls in the future 🙂

This image was taken at Bass Harbor Head Light in the southwest portion of Acadia National Park on the last morning we were in Maine. Now that I think of it, I wish it was one of the first spots we went to. This area of the park had the amazing fall foliage that we were hoping for our whole trip to Acadia and it was noticeably less crowded.

Getting down to this point of view was a little difficult. The rocks were pretty steep and slippery from the crashing waves but was so worth it. As soon as the sun rose in the sky, it casted this amazingly beautiful warm red color over the head light. (P.S. Why do they call it a head light and not a lighthouse?) My favorite is the red light being casted on the rocks on the left hand side of this image. Theres something about those dark black rocks contrasted with the warm sunlight that I really enjoy.

If you’re interest in seeing more from our trip, check out this youtube video I created. Just watching it brings back so many great memories.

The settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

The end of 2017 is fast approaching and I can’t help but reflect on the amazing year it’s been. I think this whole week on the blog I’ll talk about all the fun photo adventures of the year. It started off with an awesome trip to Iceland. It was my second time there but definietly not my last. If you’ve never been to Iceland, it’s hard to describe. It’s just so amazingly beautiful and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

I took this image on one of the last days we were there. We had shot sunrise and was wondering around Höfn when we stumbled upon this group of horses. It was beautiful because the early morning light was hitting them perfectly. But if you look at this guy in the eye, you can totally tell how calm and relaxed they all are. The horses in Iceland are super chill and so great to pet… and hug… and basically obsess over.

Shout out to Peak Design for their awesome camera straps. I have the clutch, which is basically a camera strap for your hand. I love it! It makes it so easy to carry around and shoot from different angles. I was able to get this low perspective without having to bend down. I just had my arm straight out, pointed up, and I didn’t have to worry about dropping it at all. Its kinda fun to see what you end up with. It was not serious shooting but shooting for fun and if you get something that turns out cool, it’s even better!

Click here if you’d like to see more images from Iceland.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/100th of a second ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

After our first snow of the season, I knew I had to wake up early the next morning and capture the sunrise. Somehow I knew it was going to be a good one. We had 2 days of really grey days so I knew the clouds were going to have to break up and bring in some of the sun light.

But this was not the image I intended to capture. I had every intention of shooting at the Tidal Basin. I thought it would be cool to see how the water did in the snow. Did it freeze over? or was there any snow still on the cherry blossom trees? I dunno. I wasn’t able to drive over there since all the roads around the National Mall was blocked off. I’m not sure why, but I’m thinking it was for some kind of parade or marathon. I’ve tried googling it and still can’t find the answer. Oh well.

So I drove over to the Capitol and figured it would be just as nice. I spent the morning just walking all around the Capitol grounds, blasting my music with no headphones. LOL it was awesome. There was hardly anyone around and it felt like I had the whole Capitol to myself. I felt so free to just walk anywhere I wanted to and was so happy when I stumbled onto this compass. I’ve noticed it before but never saw how reflective it is. I guess the melting snow made for great puddles in here. Love finding hidden gems like this. One thing I didn’t notice while taking this picture was the guy walking in front of the Capitol building. I love how he adds some scale to the whole thing. Yea, the US Capitol building is hugeeee.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/80th of a second ISO 160 with my Sony A7II 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Monday mornings. Usually people dread it. Me, I love them. I love what I do and when weekend plans don’t get in the way of doing what I love, I can’t help but welcome the day with open arms.

Although this past Monday started superrr early. I’m talking 3a wake up call. Y’all know me and how I’m a morning person, but I’m also a person who likes to sleep through the whole night. LOL. My friend, Larry, told me he was going to go to the National Mall to try to capture the super moon setting, so I had to get up and join him. The moon was alright, but the sunrise was amazing!

So we met up by the WWII memorial and had plans of capturing the super moon over the Lincoln Memorial and use the Reflecting Pool for the reflection of it all. What’s better than a super moon image? 2 super moons in one shot! I still think the images turned out pretty good, but while we were waiting for the moon to set, we started to play around with different images and angles.

So for this image, I set up the shot, Larry helped me by hitting the trigger and our friend, Dave helped out by lighting me up. It was totally a group effort and am so happy with the way it turned out. Thanks guys for all your help!

Super moon shoot was fun, but I think I’ll just stick to sunrise next time 🙂 Or just capture the moon it as it rises. I was definietly feeling the effects of an early wake up by 9am. At that time, I had already been up for 6 hours! Craziness!

The settings for this image is F5.6 at 4 seconds and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

You know, I photograph Washington DC a lot. LOL. A lot of the time it’s at sunrise. And lately there hasn’t been a real sunrise that has gotten me excited to shoot, except for this day! I woke up a little earlier than usual and made my way down to the National Mall. Driving in I knew it was going to be a real good one. It’s really hard to say how, but I can just tell by looking at the clouds. Needless to say, I was super hyped.

I knew right away that it was going to be a great photo day. I wanted to make sure that my feet kept on moving as I walked through the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I try my best to experiment with different compositions at the places I go to the most. I really don’t like going home with a SD card full of the same exact images. So the only way to prevent that from happening is to keep on moving. But something was calling me back to the Reflecting Pool. I knew it was going to be THE place to capture this amazing sky.

As soon as I turned the corner from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I stood in awe. It was AMAZING. My favorite is seeing the perfect cloud reflections in the water. In order to capture it all, I had to get real low. No tripod, just balanced my camera on the ground and hoping my winter shivers didn’t move the camera too much. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!

The settings for this image is F8 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

This was taken the same morning as this image just about 30 minutes earlier. It’s a weird perspective in two different ways. 1 because this image is facing west. For some reason, this sunrise had all the color in the opposite direction and hardly anything facing east. You could imagine my surprise when I actually saw it. It was totally unexpected but very much welcomed. 2 because I knew I wanted to try to get the reflection of the colors in from the reflecting pool but there would have been no way I would have been able to get to the other side of the reflecting pool without the colors fading. So I decided that the edge of the reflecting pool was good enough. Personally, I don’t like it when I see other photographers stick their tripods in the reflecting pool to take pictures. I don’t know why but I just find it disrespectful. So this was a handheld shot to make it look like my tripod was in the water. LOL. Don’t worry, no tripods went swimming to capture this image! It stayed safely in the middle of the sidewalk so that no one could push it in. And by no one, I mean me.

But overall I love the way it turned out, especially the side of the steps where it sort of looks like a semi-circle in the reflection. Such an interesting pattern but one I’ve never noticed before and don’t know if I really would have if it weren’t for this angle.

Lesson learned here. Always look behind you when taking pictures. You could be missing out on some fantastic color and would have never known it!

The camera settings for this image is F/8 at 1/60th of a second and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.