ANGELA B. PAN

Sometimes waking up early can be a struggle. The night before I took this, I was out to dinner with a few of my girlfriends. We were having so much fun catching up that we ended up staying out later than we usually would of so that meant I went to bed later than I usually do. Before we even went to bed, Andrew asked if I was going to wake up for sunrise. I said “I’m going to wake up and check the weather”. Well the next morning the app on my phone said it was mostly cloudy (usually great weather for photos) but I sooo did not want to wake up. I was tired and because the weather channel app also said it was 29 degrees out, I double did not want to wake up. After about 20 minutes of laying there and pretending like I was looking at important stuff on instagram and my email, I finally rolled out of bed, put on two pairs of pants, 3 top layers and off to the city I went. I decided to go to the US Capitol because I felt like I haven’t been there for a long time. With the inauguration last month, that place was pretty crowded with construction and people for about 3 months prior.

Once I arrived at the Capitol, it seemed like all the cold air went away. All the sleepiness went away. And I just felt pure excitement. The pink started to really show through the clouds and the air was so still that the reflection in the reflecting pool was perfect. I’m so glad I got there early because by the time I drove home the skies had turned grey. Overall, timing was perfect for the pink sunrise and the clouds were perfect for a nap afterwards 🙂

This is kind of a funny story. So lately when I’ll go to shoot the Lincoln Memorial at sunrise, I’ll park on the Arlington Memorial Bridge. It’s as close as you can get so early in the morning but you usually have to park kind of far down the bridge because there will always be cars that got there before you. So I’m walking along the bridge. I’ll stop and take some pictures of the water or something like that. You know, just takin’ my time and enjoying the morning views. Then at the very beginning of the bridge, I see this amazing puddle by the curb. I immediately crotched down to the sidewalk to to see if could get a better reflection of the Lincoln Memorial and see this beautiful shot of the memorial and Washington Monument all in one. Then I looked to make sure no cars were coming so I could stand in the street for a better view point. Luckily the parked cars were there to block me from the oncoming cars and I was able to capture the composition I was looking for. So I’m still crouching down and contorting my body in all these weird angles so that my tripod could balance on the sidewalk/road, I take the shot. I was really happy and so excited to have captured it because it was timed perfectly with oncoming cars providing these amazing light trails. But then when I was finally done, I stood up, turned around and looked in the parked car that was right behind me. There was someone sitting there the whole time! OMG He got a fabulous view of my butt the entire time. LOL. Who knows what he thought I was doing. But I can imagine the weird looks he was giving me the whole time while I was trying to set up.

Isn’t it weird how when you look at a picture and you can automatically remember when, where, how you were shooting it? I so remember this day like it was yesterday but it wasn’t. It was in June 2016. It had been a super hot and humid day. I remember specifically going out to the city because it was supposed to storm later that night and was I hoping that the sunset clouds would look cool. In real life they were beautiful, but it wasn’t until I looked at my LCD screen did I notice the kind of zig zag shape they were creating. It was even more noticeable in the reflection in the reflecting pool water. The clouds were moving kind of fast so I slapped on my Ice neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed and it created this cool motion effect in the image. Also, there weren’t a lot of people out walking around so it made everything so clean and easy. The quote “If you can’t handle the heat, then get out of the kitchen” comes to mind because I also remember just sitting there with my tripod sweating, wishing I could just into the reflecting pool. All those memories from one 30 second exposure. Pretty cool.

In other news, Happy Valentines day!!! Hope you are spending this beautiful Tuesday with someone you love. Andrew and I are keepin’ it low key this year. After work, we’ll probably grab a pizza and watch some netflix. A heart shape pizza, obviously 🙂 I found the perfect card for him from Target over the weekend. It’s of this couple holding hands. On the woman’s shirt it says “Artsy” and on the man’s shirt it says “Fartsy”. LOL. Its like the card company knew our relationship. Just Kidding. Not really. HAHA.

Already looking forward to cherry blossom season. I missed it last year because I was out of the country. I’m not letting that happen again. I’m sticking around all of March and April to make sure I capture them. Its such an exciting time of year to be in DC.

So many foggy days this winter, it hasn’t really felt like winter lately. Now that I said that it means we’re going to get a foot of snow next week, aren’t we?

Last week I was out shooting the sunset. The sunset was spectacular but I wasn’t in a very good spot to photograph it. I was kinda down and was ready to head back to my car. But then I turned around and saw this amazing glow on the Washington Monument. It looks like a sword in the sky, doesn’t it?