Samm Blake Photographer - Blog - Fine Art Documentary Wedding Potraiture Photographer, Perth, Western Australia

Today I finally finished completed my 101 list - it has been a work in progress over the last couple of weeks and it was far more harder to finish than I would have ever imagined! After returning from London from at the beginning of the year and making the transition from being employed to self employed, I have gone through a interesting change in my personal life. Photography has always been my biggest passion and dream job and I am very fortunate and lucky enough to have photography as my career, however over the past few months I have come to the realization that I now need some other stuff going on in my life as for the past seven years I have devoted my life to my photography and setting up my career. Now that my career is in full swing and everything in my business is going really well, it is now time to have some fun and spend some time working out what else I want out of life. So here it is, my 101 things I want to do before I die, but hopefully I will achieve them before I am 30! (some things will have to wait until I am 40 though, like #97, I dont plan on having 3 kids by the time I am 30!!). As a little added incentive for me to achieve the things on the list, I have added this list on a separate page on my blog so I can check off items as I achieve them!

 

1. To travel to twenty different countries before I am 30 (6 to go!)

2. To update my blog everyday for a month

3. Learn Yoga

4. To learn a second language (preferably Mandarin)

5. Buy my own house and then spend time making it into exactly what I want

6. To go to the gym at least four times a week for four weeks

7. Make a photo book of my travel photography

8. To get my Advanced Open Water Scuba Diving Certificate

9. Get a dog

10. Learn to listen better

11. To travel to Japan again

12. To learn how to ride a motorbike

13. Swim with a dolphin

14. Learn how to complain effectively

15. Volunteer for a good cause

16. To put my photography and others up on my walls at home

17. To learn a instrument

18. To photograph someone famous and to be paid for it!

19. Be debt free

20. Win an award

21. To fly first class

22. Throw a dart on a map and go to where it lands

23. Send a message in a bottle

24. To do a massage course

25. Legally change my name

26. Drive across America in a convertible

27. To take a self portrait on my birthday every year

28. Teach a course part-time

29. To ride on a gondola in Venice

30. To laugh until I cry

31. Listen to the Dalia Lama speak

32. Have my own vegetable garden

33. To own my own studio / office space

34. To drive around Australia

35. To photograph a destination wedding

36. Learn to ski or snowboard

37. To be a mother

38. To get married

39. To mentor a young photographer

40. Witness a miracle

41. To experience what no gravity feels like

42. To smile more

43. To camp on a beach again

44. To travel to another country by myself

45. Skydive

46. To take my parents out for dinner at a really nice restaurant

47. Accept myself for who I am

48. Get passionate about a cause and spend time helping it, instead of just thinking about it

49. Understand the stock market

50. To not complain once for 21 days

51. Give blood

52. Spend three months getting my body into optimum shape

53. To write a to-do list each night and achieve everything on it the next day for a month

54. To own a digital medium format camera

55. To read at least 50 books a year

Books I have read so far:

- The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris (I highly recommend this book to anyone who is self employed or wanting to be in the near future)

- Dr Gillian McKeith’s Ultimate Health Plan by Dr Gillian McKeith

- Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

56. Go skinny-dipping at midnight

57. Go up in a hot-air balloon

58. Go dancing in the pouring rain

59. Run 10km

60. To get a tattoo

61. To live my life caffeine free

62. Get a Master’s degree

63. To travel to the USA for WPPI

64. Earn, save, and invest enough money to retire comfortably by age 55

65. To not talk for a entire day

66. To teach photography to high school kids

67. Build my own home and have it exactly how I want it

68. Get acupuncture

69. Engage in a large food fight

70. Surprise someone

71. Learn how to draw

72. Be able to do the splits

73. Be a bridesmaid

74. To have a photograph by Max Pam on my wall

75. To have a photograph by Richard Avedon on my wall

76. Read one book per month for six months to benefit my business

77. To inspire someone to become a photographer

78. Stop caring what others think

79. Save someones life

80. To make a snowman

81. Adopt a child

82. To get to my target weight

83. Watch no TV for a week

84. To meet my photography idols

85. To have an exhibition of my work every year

86. Befriend an enemy

87. Give something that is important to me to another person

88. To go rock climbing

89. Make dinner for my whole family

90. To have one of my photos in the National Portrait Gallery

91. To have an exhibition overseas

92. Do the Trans Siberian train journey

93. Volunteer for a good cause overseas

94. Sleep under the stars

95. To go to musical festival overseas

96. Go to Antarctica

97. To have 3 kids

98. To live overseas with my children for a year

99. To learn more about Buddhism

100 .To become a master of photography

101. Become a vegan