ANGELA B. PAN

Oh snap! I can’t believe I still haven’t blogged this image yet. I’ll let you all in on a little secret. I have a folder on my computer desktop called “Haven’t blogged yet” (very creative, I know). It’s the place where I dump all the images that I’ve worked on but haven’t blogged about it yet (hence the name of the folder). Usually all these images have already been on my instagram. It’s just so much easier for me to throw things up on there but when it comes time to blogging, I am a lot more thoughtful and careful with what I’m saying. So I need to keep a folder to make sure all these cool images end up on the blog. When it was time to write today’s blog post, I went back into my trusty folder and found this one!

I took it the day I left for New York. It was the only day of the week that called for cloudy/slightly rainy skies. Those are words are like music to my ears because that usually means colorful sunrises/sunsets and I was right! But the best part of this morning was that the colors lasted for so long. Probably a good 20-30 minutes of amazing color. I was surprised and super grateful to have the extra time to try to come up with different compositions. So in case you were wondering, this was shot close to Netherland Carillon in Arlington, VA. Its one of the only places I know of that you can get all three of these iconic DC monuments all lined up like this. I tried my best to use my “cherry blossom skills” to frame the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Capitol building all in one image using the trees around me. I’m pretty happy with the results. What do you think?

This was taken last year in Tokyo Skytree. When I was researching different places to take pictures in Toyko, Skytree was definietly on top of my list. Not just for the amazing views, but also the possibility of photographing people looking at said views. It sounds a bit weird, I know, but I think that some of the more interesting photos are the ones of that include other people enjoying the same things you are.

So here I was, enjoying the beautiful view from 2080′ in the air, when I heard a lot of little voices laughing and talking. I turned around and saw a bunch of little kids with what looked like to be there teacher. It was so cute because all of them were wearing these yellow hats so it was really easy to spot them in a crowd. It immediately reminded me of when I was in elementary school and we’d always go on class field trips to the Smithsonian museums or to the Washington Monument in matching t-shirts.

Not to sound like a creeper, but I followed these kids around for a little bit. I wanted to find the right time so I could photograph them enjoying the views. They finally stopped and all lined up in front of a window as there teacher was showing them something outside. I started to shoot. These two girls in the back must of heard my camera clicking because they immediately turned around with big smiles and gave the international signal for “I’m ready for my close up” by pulling out the peace fingers. Aren’t they so cute? No words or anything were exchanged. Just a little “Arigatou gozaimasu” (thank you very much) from me and a big smile and they kept on moving with the rest of the yellow-hat kids.

Have you guys been watching the Olympics? I’m sorry to say that I’m a little obsessed. My favorites are women’s gymnastics (duh!) and women’s swimming. I mean how insane is Katie Ledecky? While I watching her match over the weekend she beat her own world record by almost a body length. AND she’s only 19! That’s crazy! At 19 I was worried about finding a fake ID so I could get into the club that weekend. Not breaking world records. It’s so inspiring to watch.

Why did we leave again? I left my camera battery charger and an extra battery in our hotel room. I think I should go back and get it 🙂

Home from an amazing trip out west. I still feel like I’m recovering from the lack of sleep I got and all the fun I was having. So this weekend is reserved for rest and photo editing 🙂

Here’s an image I took on my second day in San Francisco. I headed up to Twin Peaks for sunrise and was surprised to see about 10 other people already there. Half of them were there for photography while the other half had obviously been there all night partying. So this lead to some interesting conversations about UFOs, moroccan food, and Lucy Liu. Don’t ask. I have no idea either.

I didn’t get to talk to this woman but I’m positive she has some interesting stories of her own 🙂

Here are 3 things that made me so happy this past week:

1. Connecting with friends from the Arcanum and all our photo adventures

2. Meeting Anelise in real life and surprising Ana at her awesome new store in Sacramento

3. Climbing down a steep hill in Muir Woods with Kyle and his wife Danielle to take some funny pictures with trees. More about that one later.