ANGELA B. PAN

Last week I said ‘goodbye’ to my friend, Navin. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that we’ll randomly meet up and shoot together. He was one of the first people I ever met in the DC photo community and it’s so crazy to think he won’t be here anymore. Our mutual friend, Joe threw him a little going away party and what do photographers do when they’re moving away? Obviously we get together and shoot one last sunset before heading off to get some drinks at a near by bar.

It was the perfect send off. All day we had crazy weather. I think I saw weather reports saying we had three tornados touch down in DC on that day. At some points it was even hailing. Luckily, when we met up the rain had stopped for a little bit. The clouds were racing above us and we were able to get some super moody shots. Then without any warning, it started to downpour. It wasn’t so bad because even through the downpour, there was still this amazing light that shined through the clouds that made everything illuminate and it was so beautiful.

This image was shot at F7.1 at 1/200th of a second ISO 400. Again, the clouds were pretty crazy and dark this day but I was super excited to get that one little clearing above the dome. Its my favorite part of this image because it looks like a little halo over the United States Capitol Building.

Its always fun shooting with people who have the same interests in photography as you. It was just a bonus that you ended up being a cool person as well. Best of luck in the Bay Area, Navin! Come back and visit and we’ll shoot again 🙂

Obviously, one of my favorite parts of spring time in Washington DC are the cherry blossoms and all the other trees that bloom flowers but I love the tulips too. They’re almost everywhere you go. All the memorials and monuments have tulips somewhere that you can use them as foreground. It just makes me feel so happy when I see them. These flowers in particular belong to the Floral Library that’s right at the Tidal Basin. Luckily they’re facing the Washington Monument and are perfect for a photoshoot. For example… LOLOL

Even at a young age, my mom would teach me to appreciate flowers. I don’t remember a time where we didn’t have a garden at our house. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t pose myself like that. It looks very similar to something my mom or grandma would make me do. I even have pictures of them posing me in different poses to prove that I was just there little doll to take pictures of. I’d think some people would be unhappy about that. I still love it. I think it’s so funny and it’s fun to see pictures of my grandma interacting with me. Plus, if I came up with my own pose, I’m pretty sure my tongue would of been out for this adorable moment in time. HAHAHA.

So for the first image, the camera settings were f7.1 at 1/60th of a second ISO 320. I bumped up my ISO a little more for this since it was a cloudy day but it was also fairly windy. I wanted the flowers to be still in this image so I tried my best to get my shutter faster without making it too noisy.

No clue what the settings were for the second image. I’m confident that it was shot on automatic camera though. Noob.

Shout out to my friend, Zack who had been texting me to meet up for sunset on this day. Although we were on two very different sides of the national mall shooting (I was by the reflecting pool and he was at the US Capitol), I would of never have gone out on this day if it weren’t for him. It’s funny because we were texting each other pictures of what we were seeing in the sky the entire time. Once the color actually broke through the clouds, it was dead silent between the both of us until it was all over. LOL.

So I was sitting by the reflecting pool, mostly concentrating on the sky. But it was awesome because these little kids came up next to me with crackers and were feeding the ducks. *note to self, always bring crackers when taking pictures* So my attention went from the sky to getting the ducks in the foreground of the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial. I got some pretty cool shots which I’ll post later. Next, I’m not sure what happened but I turned around to see that the sky behind had really blown up. I mean you usually see the sunset colors behind the Lincoln Memorial, but all the action was behind the Washington Monument right at the WWII Memorial. Luckily, I had some time to set up a shot. But it didn’t last long. I’m glad I was able to capture what I did.

Camera settings for this shot was F5 with a 15 second exposure at ISO500. I was using my Ice neutral density filter for this one so I was able to capture the saturated colors and any people who were in my way were blurred out. The only people you see were the ones who were standing there for longer than 15seconds.

Ok, last cherry blossom image for a while. I know I’ve been on a cherry blossom streak but I’m lovin’ them this year and this one was absolutely incredible. This is from that same foggy morning when I lost tripod in the tidal basin also the same day that I captured this beautiful cherry tree. Actually you know what, that tree that’s almost parallel to the sidewalk is the same tree as the previous image except this is from the other side it. That morning was crazy incredible for photography. So grateful for my rain boots so I was able to stand in the middle of this gigantic puddle and capture the reflections. I’m pretty sure other photographers there was staring at me to get out of the middle of their shot. LOL. *just one more, I promise* says every photographer in the world.

But the sad part is that I should of never been able to take this picture. The flooding of the tidal basin at high tide is a growing problem that’s getting worse everyday. It’s due to the collapsing seawall that surrounds the basin. If it gets bad enough, it will be disastrous for the cherry blossom trees. Just thinking about it makes me so sad. So if you’d like to learn more about the situation or if you would be kind of enough to donate the cause, click the link here. If every visitor to the tidal basin donated just $15, then that money would really go a long way to preserve the wall and trees.

The settings for this image was F6.3 at 1/15th of a second at ISO 200 with my 16-35mm. The biggest thing I wanted out of this image was to really show off the reflections in the puddle. I think the bubbles in it were an added bonus but I’m not sure how they happened. Maybe it was me walking through the puddle? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Another puddle shot. I’ve been loving them this year and shooting them at the Tidal Basin is super easy because there are always puddles! Even when it’s super clear and nice out, there will be a puddle. It’s just because the sidewalks can be really uneven that if you look around there will be at least a little one in the cracks somewhere.

This however was not a little puddle. It was quite big and pretty much took over the whole sidewalk. Days like this, I’m super grateful to have rain boots. That way I can walk comfortably wherever without having to worry about my socks getting wet or my shoes getting muddy.

I’m also really grateful that the cherry blossoms peaked so nicely this year. It was totally unexpected that they would since we had that cold spell in the middle of March. I think it scared away a lot of the people because everyday that I went down to the Tidal Basin, there weren’t a lot of people there (compared to previous years where it’d be hard to even walk, let alone get shots without many people in it). Overall I’m just so happy spring is here and the cherry blossoms were amazing. I don’t know if I’ll be at the Tidal Basin anymore shooting the cherry blossoms this year but hopefully in other places around the DMV area <3

This was shot at F5.6 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 400. Again, I did not shoot this on my tripod because it just can’t get low enough. Which reminds me, if you guys have any tripod recommendations that can get super low, like almost touching the ground, let me know. I’d love to try that out. The only reason the ISO was at 400 was because this was hand held and I wanted to make sure to get everything sharp and in focus.