ANGELA B. PAN

It’s what everyone’s talking about and I’m still undecided if I want to shoot the solar eclipse on Monday. There are several reasons why but one of the biggest ones is that we’ll only be able to see a partial eclipse from the DC Metro area. Unfortunately we’re not in line with where total eclipse will be taking place. So I’m still undecided if I even want to try. I’m not even sure if I will even have the right equipment for it. Theres just so much hype surrounding the eclipse. It’s difficult to not fall into the trap. I may just try my best with what I have and if it turns out, then it turns out. Don’t be upset if I don’t get anything 🙂

Anyways, here’s a pretty image of the Washington Monument at sunset to distract you from all the eclipse talk. HAHA.

I love shooting the monument at sunset. If you’re there at the right time when the sun in shining directly on the monument, then it turns these amazing colors of red and orange. It’s like a sword in the sky with how powerful it looks. It’s absolutely breathtaking in real life. And to capture it with all these trees as framing was an added bonus. The Washington Monument is truly different at all times of the day. You just have to be aware of what you are witnessing.

The settings for this image was F6.3 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 25o handheld.

Hope you all have a great weekend. And if you’re planning on shooting the eclipse, best of luck to you! Tell me where you’re shooting from and send me your shots. I’d love to see them! May your day be filled with clear skies and plenty of space on your memory card!

If you’ve never been, then I’d highly recommend visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. It’s not a Smithsonian museum so you have to pay for admission but it’s totally worth it. They do an excellent job of provoking emotions out of you that you’d never expect. While walking through, I felt anger, sadness, confusion and most of all disbelief. Especially when you’re walking through the Tower of Faces. This is a shot looking directly up in the center of the tower. Luckily, I was there when no one else was around so I was able to take my time and make sure everything was aligned. But to imagine all these people, suffering and with such sadness is so overwhelming. I mean this tower is so tall and there are so many faces in here. It’s sad to think that this was just a small portion of the people who actually lived the holocaust.

I really think it’s important to learn from our history. Mostly so we don’t repeat our same mistakes. We can do so much better and we should. I just don’t understand how some people can have so much hatred in their hearts.

Anyways, the settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/13th of a second ISO 160. I used my wide angle lens for this shot because I wanted to make sure I could get as much of the wall space as I could. Kneeling down on the floor helped as well. In post processing, I added a dark vignette around the edges to really emphasize the mood of the tower. I’m hoping the light in the center can symbolize the light at the end of a dark tunnel.

If for any reason you are scared, just know that I was too. But these days it seems like its scarier on the streets than in a museum. More peace. More love.

Not to call anyone out, but are you a senior citizen? If so, you should definietly know about the new changes to the National Park passes. Starting August 28th, the National Park service is increasing the price of the pass from $10 to $80. So you have exactly 2 weeks to get one if you are old enough. The best part is that you get free admission to any National Park for the rest of your life. That’s a freakin’ deal if you ask me!

Right before our trip to Colorado and Utah, Andrew and I purchased a regular National Park pass. It was $80 and it’s only good for a year. With that trip alone, it paid for itself. A lot of the parks that we went to were $20-$25 admission and the amount of parks we visited paid for the pass within 5 days of our trip. So awesome and convienet. There were even some state parks that accepted the pass too. It’s totally worth it.

So if you’re interested, click on this link from the National Park Service page for more information. Share it with your family and friends too! They will thank you.

This image was taken in Rocky Mountain National Park on our last sunrise of the trip. The sunrise itself wasn’t that great but as soon as the sun came up above the horizon, it turned everything around Bear Lake pink! And that rock in the middle of the water was so beautiful. I knew it would make a great piece for foreground. The perfect way to end our trip even though I really didn’t want it to end. I really enjoyed my time in Rocky Mountain National Park and I look forward to visiting again soon. And any other National Park I visit if a senior citizen wanted to take me. LOL JK.

Cherry Blossoms! On one hand I wish they would stick around longer than a week at a time. On the other, I think it’s what makes me appreciate them even more. They’re so delicate and beautiful. My favorite is when they look like kernels of popcorn jumping off the branch.

My trick with cherry blossoms is to photograph them off the tripod. That’s right, no tripod at all. Unless you’re shooting the sky at sunrise or sunset, I feel like the tripod can be restricting. Especially when you’re trying for new angles and points of view. I tend to put my camera as close as I can get to them and start composing from there. They make for great foreground elements as well a good way to frame and using the branches for line. I particularly like this image because the cherry blossoms are coming at you from every which way. Some may say the ones in the very front should be in focus, but I like the out of focus ones the most. It adds an extra element of depth that you wouldn’t get if they were in sharp.

This was shot early morning, right after sunrise. So my camera settings for this image was F/8 at 1/1000th of a second ISO 1000. Not sure why my ISO was so high. That must have been a mistake. If I were to do it again, it’d probably be in the 100 to 200 range. Results would be the same but I’m sure during post processing I had to denoise it to get rid of the small specks.

Here’s hoping we get a normal winter this year and the snow stops falling in February instead of March like it did this year! A lot of these suckers didn’t’ get to full term this year 🙁

The other day, Andrew and I were talking about how crazy the past two months have been. I think all the craziness started around Memorial day and it’s just been non-stop ever since. I’m not complaining though. It definietly makes life interesting and fun. But for some reason I feel like it’s only the beginning. And no, I’m not pregnant- MOM!

Then I started thinking about the year as a whole. I’m so grateful for everything that has happened this year and it all started in Iceland. A place I’ve visited before but this time I really got to explore and enjoy this amazing country. It’s just so beautiful at every turn. Everyone you meet is so nice when you talk to them. The food was better than expected and the waterfalls are even better.

However this image was taken at a black sand beach in Höfn called Stokksnes. No waterfalls that I knew of were near by but if you ever visit Iceland this place is definietly worth the drive. Holy crap I can’t express that enough. It’s amazingly beautiful. And the sunrises lasts for so long. We were there in the winter time so I don’t know what it’d be like in the summer. But the best part was that the sunrise was at 945a! (You can’t see my face but it looks like I just ate a sour lime, but in a really expressive/happy way.) It felt like we were there for an hour and the color was still changing and exploding. Highly recommended and I’d go again and again if I had the opportunity to.

So even though more than half the year is gone, I’m optimistic and really looking forward to new adventures. Which also reminds me, how are you doing with your new year’s resolutions?

I took so many pictures on this road trip. There are so many beautiful sights in this country. It’s a little difficult to figure out where to really begin. So, here’s one of the major highlights that happened at the very end of our trip when we arrived in San Diego, California. Before leaving on our road trip, we had a couple of activities in mind for San Diego. That all went out the window as soon as we arrived. We were so tired from the travels that our main objective was to just ‘chill’. No plans, nothing to do but relax and enjoy the beach town. Our first stop on the only full day that we were there was to a farmers market to pick up some breakfast. The farmers markets change locations everyday so luckily we were there for the one in La Jolla. The food is always so good at these farmers markets since they’re so fresh. I loved it. Green juice was callin’ my name.

Once we were full, we walked over to La Jolla Cove in hopes to just sit on the beach and lay out. That too went out the window once we saw the seals and sea lions hanging out on the rocks. There must of be at least 20 of them! Daddy sea lions, Mama sea lions, and the cutest of them all- BABY SEA LIONS!!!! OMG we were freaking out. I’d never seen so many of them at one time.  What started out as a casual walk around the cove ended up being 3 hours with these animals. I loved every minute of it. It was so fun to just watch them sleep, fight, play, and walk around. I’m not sure who squealed more, the sea lions or me.

Stay classy, San Diego.