(Photography) Bucket List - Part 1

I have a thing about bucket lists. I love creating them because I want to achieve and experience a lot in my life and writing them gives me more of an incentive to do so. I'm not entirely sure how many parts this post will have as I have made a lot of bucket lists in my time and they all revolve around different areas. So I thought I would start with the obvious; what is my photography bucket list?

1) Get 1000 likes on a photo

Of course, the whole point of a bucket list is to come up with the stuff you want to do before you die. Most people come up with outrageous once in a lifetime opportunities like jumping out of a plane, or swimming with sharks. There are things like that on my bucket lists however, there are smaller accomplishments that I want to achieve before I die. This is one of them. There is nothing better than receiving good feedback (or sometimes even bad. How else are you supposed to improve?) I like it when people appreciate the work that I post so for my work to be seen and liked by 1000 people will be an accomplishment to me. This has sort of happened already. A few years back I went to a festival and McBusted were headlining. We were one of the first people to turn up and got rewarded by being in a sectioned off area right in front of the stage. I snapped this picture of James Bourne and tweeted it (see below). He saw it and changed it to his profile picture of months and he also posted it on his Instagram and it received over 6000 likes. However...Mr James Bourne never credited me on the photo so nobody knew that it was me that took it. Normally this would really annoy me BUT it was one of my favourite bands that saw it and I was so excited that one of them saw it, liked it and then posted it that I was past caring. I would really like to get over 1000 likes on a photo where people actually know that it was me that took it!

If you wanna help me achieve this goal, feel free to follow me on my Instagram accounts - Fashion - https://www.instagram.com/e.m.p__photos/

Other - https://www.instagram.com/em_images/

2) Photograph for a Charity

I have done (and still do) my fair share of volunteer and community work. I find satisfaction in helping others and I want to put my photography skills to good use. I'm already working towards this goal and there are some charities that I already have in mind. I've seen opportunities with charities such as dogs trust who like to have photographers to photograph dogs with their new owners and that sounds like such a pure volunteer job that I would adore. I would also like to photograph various charity/community events. This is actually something that I've been trying to do with my current volunteer job so hopefully I can tick this one off my list in the next few months...hopefully.

3) Be in the Press Pit for a Concert

If you don't know what a press pit is, it's basically a section at the front of a stage where photographers are allowed to go to take pictures of an artist/band for the first 3 songs for promotional purposes. I've been trying to get a press pass for ages and have come SO CLOSE but unfortunately they've always fallen through. Preferably I want to photograph someone quite successful...and someone I really like. The main acts I would love to photograph is McFly (if they ever decide to do anything again) and The Vamps. Technically I've photographed The Vamps before but it wasn't in the press pit. The event just allowed me to take my camera in which is something that isn't usually allowed. This for sure would be a career highlight for me.

4) Photograph wildlife in South Africa

This is definitely those once in a lifetime opportunities I mentioned earlier. I love photographing wildlife but we're limited as to what we can take in the UK. I am so FED UP of photographing ducks and squirrels. They're cute but let's face it...not the most exciting animals in the world. I want to take pictures of elephants, giraffes and other wildlife where you don't have to go to a zoo just to take pictures of them. That seems so disrespectful to an animal; to take pictures of them behind bars. That is not for me. I want to see them and capture them happily in their natural habitat. And South Africa is the place to go for this. To be honest though, I'm not really sure how I would deal with the heat but I really don't want that to stop me!

5) Travel

This is the big one for me. I'll start by listing the places that I'm already planning on going to:

- Sweden

- Norway

- Paris

- Amsterdam

- New York

- Venice

So Paris I hope is a trip that I will be able to do this year. My mum has always wanted to take me to Paris and Venice because these were her favourite places to go when she went travelling as a teenager. I'm also really hoping Norway is in the works as me and my best friend are in talks of going there to see the Northern Lights which would be amazing to experience with her. Sweden is a place I've always wanted to go purely for the fact that it's pretty. All of these places interest me culturally and this is something I want to experience as well as capture photographically.