ANGELA B. PAN

Somedays you get real lucky with sunrises. Somedays you don’t. This day I was EXTREMELY lucky.

I woke up a little bit earlier than I usually do and headed down to the US Capitol. Since it was kinda cold out, I decided to park on the street where I could keep my eye on the sunrise at all times but not actually have to get out of the car 🙂 I don’t remember what I was doing on my phone, probably on instagram or watching a youtube video or something when I noticed the sky change a little bit. I quickly jumped out of the car, grabbed my tripod out of the trunk and ran over to the reflecting pool. By the time I arrived, the sky had turned a crazy, vibrant color of pink. It was honestly one of the most exciting sunrises I had seen in a real long time. I grabbed a few shots and debated if I wanted to stay by the water or move closer to the Capitol Building itself. I noticed the water level was unusually high so I decided to stay by the water and take some images from right above. With it being so high and the weather being kind of windy, it was making the reflections dance a bit. I thought it was really cool.

But my favorite part of the whole morning was running into my friend, Erikson. He was on his way to work when the sunrise stopped him in his tracks. We watched the sunrise together and he even got this pretty cool behind the scenes shot of me. Click here if you want to check it out. It was so great just to sit and watch the sky with him. The color didn’t last long but it was so worth the early morning wake up call. I’m in love with how this image turned out <3

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/10th of a second at ISO 250 with my Sony A7Ii and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Going through some of my older images, I ran across this one. It is funny that I remember the exact day that I took it too. It’s the same day I took this image. You can’t see the sky or the sunrise as clear in the previous image but this is what it looked like from behind the peepholes. Pretty cool!

I also remember thinking that this particular day wasn’t going to be that great for sunrise. I arrived a little early and it looked like it was going to be too cloudy to have any kind of color. It’s ok, it happens sometimes. I figured I would just take the time to go out and try to find some new, interesting compositions and save them for when the sky was looking just right. By the way, the previous image was my “new and interesting composition” 🙂 Fortunately for me, I was wrong about the sunrise. The sky turned out to be way better than expected and I really love how this image turned out. I feel like theres every color of the rainbow represented in this image which makes me even happier to look at it. Even though I’ve shot this same scene a hundred times, I do not ever get bored of it. Its such a classic Washington DC shot and the reflection from the tidal basin is perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the day than this.

The settings for this image was F22 at 0.8 seconds and ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens. Sorry I don’t remember if this was shot on a tripod or not. Knowing me it probably wasn’t. I was probably just using the ledge of the pedestrian bridge as a sturdy surface and hoping for the best.

If you haven’t checked it out already, I posted a new vlog on my youtube channel last week! Just a few clips of our trip to San Diego plus I added some of footage I captured from the drone. I’m having so much fun flying now and becoming a lot more comfortable with it. Over the weekend I flew a little bit with my cousin, Brian and he taught me how to take off and land from my hand! SOOO COOL! So if you haven’t checked out the video yet, click here to watch our trip to San Diego. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This image was taken on one of the many foggy mornings we had in SoCal. I will admit it was a little difficult to find compositions at times with all the fog and not being able to see too far ahead, but I love the way this one turned out. I think my favorite part is seeing the bird’s reflections in the sand. It’s so simple but I just can’t stop looking at it. The lines in the sand really help draw you in as well. I don’t know about you, but I always associate southern California with sunshine so it was interesting to see the other side of it. However next time I go, I would like some sun. This is the second time in the row when there was a whole bunch of fog. You’d think I was in San Francisco or something!

The settings for this image is F18 at 0.6 seconds with ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens.

PS I heard we’re expecting some snow this week in Washington, DC. plus the super moon! I’m really looking forward to going out and shooting this week. Good times ahead!

While I was shooting the sunset on Pacific Beach in San Diego, CA, my eyes were strictly on the water. I was watching people run in and out of the ocean and the waves were glowing in the sunlight when Andrew stopped me and told me we had to go watch this bubble guy. I had no idea what he was talking about but I stopped shooting and started following him to the boardwalk. Apparently this guy comes out everyday to create these bubbles. I don’t even think he had a tip jar. He just does it for the pure joy of it which is so awesome. And he had a huge crowd surrounding him as well. Kids of all ages wanted to check out this bubble guy.

We only stood there for a few minutes but you can tell he was making everyone so happy. But don’t be fooled, these bubbles were no joke. These kids got so soaked when they bursted on top of them. It was kind of funny. He even had some dogs barking at him too.

My favorite part of this image is the actual bubble itself. I love looking at the left hand side where it has already burst and in the center, above the sun where it has so many light variations.  It’s so interesting to look at the different ‘stages’ of the bubble. But I also really like the children that are in it. They add so much to the story, especially with their hands.

Props to this bubble guy for doing this everyday. I’m sure he has so many stories to tell just from standing in this one spot.

My settings for this image is F/25 at 1/125th of a second and ISO 125 on my Sony A7II and my 28-70mm lens.

Being a photographer, I’ve learned a lot of really random things. For example, did you know that the Washington Monument in Washington DC was built to sway with the wind? Yea, that’s just in case we get a really windy day and the tallest structure in our Nation’s Capitol won’t snap in half. Isn’t that crazy?

Well, staying in San Diego for two weeks was no different. I learned so much about the environment I was in. For example, tides. Living in Virginia, I’ve never had to be concerned with how high or low the water is but in California, this information is so crucial. After the first one or two sunsets, I found myself looking at tide charts and figuring out how all of this stuff works. To generalize, I found that low tide occurs around sunset. I don’t know if that’s true all year around, but it was true in January. So I planned all my photo ops knowing that if I wanted to capture full strength waves, it had to be at sunrise.

This image was captured right at sunset. The tide was low but there was still a whole bunch of water still on the beach from earlier in the day. It made for the perfect beach reflections. My favorite part of this image is the tallest palm tree on the right hand side. The top of the tree looks like it’s standing on a toothpick. It’s crazy because when I came here the next day at sunrise, the water was all the way up to the wall. There would have been no way I could have walked on the beach unless I had plans of getting wet in the water.

My settings for this image is F11 at 0.3 seconds at ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

After doing a little bit of research, I found that one of the best places to practice flying your drone is in Fiesta Island in San Diego. It’s a wide open area with plenty of room to fly with not a lot of trees or anything to get in your way. It’s perfect. So one beautiful afternoon last week, I headed down there by myself to get some fly time in.

Overall, it was an awesome experience. It was my first time flying over water and the views were beautiful! However there are a few more things here that I have to look out for than I do flying back home. First of all, there are so many more birds here. It’s a little nerve wracking when a whole flock of them fly by. But I did get a pretty cool shot of them flying below the drone… youtube video coming soon 🙂

Second, the wind here is a huge factor. At one point my drone went a little bit too high in the sky and I honestly thought it was a goner. I hit the ‘return home’ function on the remote but it just went higher and further away. OH MAN were my hands shaking. I was so nervous about it drifting to the other side of the island or even hitting a bird or something and going straight down. Luckily, I was able to get it back and it’s all safe and sound.

So here’s one of the images I was able to capture while practicing. It’s a simple one of me sitting on the beach as a bird is flying by but I really enjoy the lines in the sand and the color of the water. Hopefully I’ll be able to fly more asap.

The settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/1100 of a second and ISO 100 with my DJI Mavic Pro.