ANGELA B. PAN

One week ago today, I was with my friend Larry on the Altaire rooftop again. It probably the best view I’ve ever seen of the nation’s capital. I feel so lucky every time I get to go up there.

So the first time we were up there, we were visiting during sunset. The sunset was amazing and the night pictures were even better. But I wondered what it looked like during sunrise. So when the opportunity came up, I had to jump on it. I know this isn’t the usual kind of sunrise images I post, but I really like it. It’s the Friday morning commute in and out of DC with a little haziness in the sky. I love that you can see the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and the US Capitol all in one frame. But if you look even closer, you’ll see the Basilica of the National Shrine, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and the Old Post Office!

It’s so interesting to see all the individual cars and where they’re headed on 395. I don’t know, I really like it. What do you think?

Big thanks again to Altaire for the opportunity to shoot on your rooftop.

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/160th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

I feel in love with Oregon. I loved every minute we were there. I felt so at peace and calm during our whole road trip across the state, I would highly recommend it to anyone who’s considering visiting the Pacific Northwest.

The real reason we went was to celebrate my birthday and to visit a place we had never been to. Portland was a city that both Andrew and I had heard was a fun place to be but never been. But we also knew it was the place to be if you like good food and weird things. Both did not disappoint!

Since this was our first time visiting Oregon, we didn’t really know what to expect. We’ve been back for less than a month, I already know of somethings that I would do differently. With that said, we will be back again. Both Andrew and I left with the feeling of wanting to see and do more. But I think that’s the sign of an amazing trip. Prior to the trip, I did tons of research on the Oregon coast on Pinterest and asked some friends who I knew had visited before. Through my research, I quickly realized that Oregon is a very dog-friendly state. Minus Crater Lake that doesn’t allow dogs in most areas of the park, Frankie was allowed everywhere else we wanted to go. So we booked 3 plane tickets off we went!

Here is a recap of everything we did and the things I would do differently next time:

Day 1: Fly into Portland

We arrived early in the afternoon, grabbed our rental car and went straight to pick up the essentials: Blue Star Donuts. I know I don’t normally give food recommendations but if you like fancy donuts, then Blue Star is where you want to be. I’ll have another donut recommendation later on our trip that ended up being our favorite.

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By the way, I’m working on an Oregon road trip post with everything we did in the week we visited. Reflecting back on the trip, there were definitely a few things that I would have done differently and discussed that in the post. If you have any other questions about Oregon, please let me know. I’ll try my best to answer them.

In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying going through the images from the trip. It’s been sort of a slow process but I’ve been really happy with the results so far. Especially this one for some reason. By the time we arrived at Myers Creek Beach Viewpoint, the sun had already been up for a while. It wasn’t the middle of the day but we could definitely feel the heat from the sun. It made for harsh lighting conditions so I was a little bit hesitant to even attempt to edit this image. I remember being so excited about the water reflections in the sand that I started shooting right when I got out of the car. I captured this just steps away from the rental in the parking lot.  Although you can’t see any reflections, you can tell how glassy and still the water was. OMG

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/800th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 24-70mm lens.

I was TIRED! I don’t know why but driving down to the Samuel H Boardman State Scenic Corridor was a trek! It took way longer than I thought it would have and by the time we were in the vicinity, I was just ready to go straight our Airbnb and lay in bed.

But then we drove past Meyers Creek Beach. Holy cow. This place looked beautiful. It woke me right back up. Since I was the one driving, I made a mental note to remember the name. As soon as we parked, I went into my phone and wrote it down so I knew where I wanted to go for the next day. Luckily, it was already in my notes as one of the first places I wanted to visit in the corridor. LOL, it was honestly no surprise.

So this image was taken the very next day. We didn’t make it for sunrise but this was still taken in the early morning. Unfortunately, the whole time we were in South Oregon there were barely any clouds. So I tried my best to fill the frame with the lines in the sand. But I think one of my favorite parts about this image is that even though there weren’t many clouds, you can still see a few clouds above the mountains but then you can also see it in the reflection in the sand. OMG.

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/2000th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 24-70mm.

We spent 2 nights in Portland at the end of our trip. It was definitely necessary because no matter how much Andrew loves me, he’s way more of a city boy than someone who would want to spend the entire trip in nature. Which is completely fine with me. I enjoy both.

This was taken on our last full day of the trip. We decided to head to Pittock Mansion to watch the sunrise but it was so foggy that you could barely see anything. So I quickly shifted the idea from taking landscape images to more people images. For a Monday morning, I was surprised to see at least 10 other people at this location. But I’m glad they were there because it gave me plenty of opportunities to create different kinds of images. I believe these two were checking out the images they had just captured on their camera but they were so close to each other that it looked like it could have been a loving embrace. I love how they are silhouetted and the only color you see is from the city.

Next time I visit Portland, I’m going to have to come here during the day. Not only was the view amazing but Pittock Mansion itself looks like it would have been really cool on the inside. And there will be a next time. I think Andrew and I both agreed that we didn’t have enough time in Portland or Oregon in general. There’s still so much more to explore!

My camera settings for this image are F4.5 at 1/10th sec and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

One really cool thing that Norway does is that they build these skywalks at really cool places. For example they had one in Flåm at Sognefjord, Dalsnibba in Geiranger, and a few other spots that we got to visit. It’s cool because sometimes they’re built so that there is just glass underneath you and when you look down it looks like you’re floating above a valley. If I had a fear of heights, this would  not work for me. Luckily I don’t so I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

This image was taken along the walkway to the Trollstigen skywalk. I was so excited to see the views from the skywalk but I got stopped in my tracks when I saw these orange/yellow wearing people. They’re jackets are so bright and colorful, I loved the way they stood out from the mountain behind them. Also the perspective here is kind of crazy.

PS this is the view.

After I took this picture I showed Andrew what it looked like on my camera. He thought it was really cool, especially since the jackets were so bright. I immediately told him that’s why I wanted him to wear bright colors so that when I photographed him, he would stand out more in the landscape. But to be honest, neither one of us are bright color wearing people. You can mostly find either one of us in a dark black tee shirt and be totally comfortable. I tend to take it a step further and wear all black… all the time. Blah, I dunno. I’m posting this in hopes that it will change my mind about colors. Or at least influence others to wear color so that if I see on you the street wearing something that stands out, I’ll want to take your pic 🙂

My settings for this image is F10 at 1/80 sec ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.