I Want to Shoot That!

A lot of people have a bucket list of things they want to do before they die. I have put a spin on this and created a bucket list of places I want to photograph. This is not a must-do list or anything like that. Just places I would like to shoot sometime. In my lifetime of course.

This list is not in any particular order, nor is it ranked in any way. I figure if I get to any of them, that’s great, and if not, oh well. So I guess this is really a wish list. But isn’t that what a bucket list is, a kind of wish list? Oh well, enough with the semantics.

Along with the place, I have included the reason I want to shoot that. Some may be obvious, well, most are obvious, but I’ll tell you anyway.

Cascade Falls in Mathieson State Park, IL. I have yet to get a good waterfall shot so this place is the closest to me where I can make it happen.
Galesburg Railroad Museum (Galesburg, IL) Illinois Railway Museum (Union, IL) or Monticello Railway Museum (Monticello, IL). I have shot a few old trains and love them. I want to do more, and get some detail shots as well as action shots of old steam engines.
Giant City State Park in Mankada, IL. As I get more into landscape photography, I want to experience different landscapes to shoot. With forests and bluffs, this may be a good place to do that.
Kankakee Sands Bison Viewing in Morocco, IN or Midewin Tallgrass Prairie near Wilmington, IL. As I have never photographed animals outside of some birds, I would love to try something big. Can’t get much bigger than bison in Illinois or Indiana.
Starved Rock State Park near Oglesby, IL. Another place to see how I do with a different type of landscape. I am always up for a challenge.

I have many other places on my list, but many are just the same items or other things I like to photograph, like old cars (Henry Ford Museum, Old Car City, and the Volo Auto Museum) and old buildings and structures (covered bridges, old gas stations, old towns).

Are any of these on your list of places to visit, photograph, draw or paint? Let me know in the comments. Add your places too. Who knows, we may run into each other at one of them.

In the meantime, keep creating.

One response to “I Want to Shoot That!”

LightCentric

November 22, 2023

Good post and one that I am sure is a popular thought and theme. Thanks for the great content! LOL, my “photo-bucket list” is much longer, and the net is much wider than yours. 🙂 I have places in the world that are still on my list to photograph. But I have two takeaway thoughts from your post today:

First, I think your focus on places nearby is very much “on point.” Unless we live in one of the spots that are photo-destinations, we often tend to take nearby attractions for granted. I know. I have lived the bulk of my adult life in those kind of places. Other than sunsets on the Gulf, there is not much to inspire me here in coastal Florida. But that is probably more my own fault for not being creative and exploring, than any fault of the location. Your post has inspired me to look for nearby “bucket list” opportunities.

But the second thought is that sometimes you don’t get it right the first (or even second) time. So in my way of thinking, it remains on the list until you think you have. Back in the days of film, in the late 1990’s I shot a site up in the Michigan Upper Peninsula that is an iconic part of the “Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore” called “Miner’s Castle.” It is a shot that normally demands some specialized equipment, as it has some very high contrast elements from top to bottom. I never became adept at using my graduated ND filter, and my shots that year – though on a perfect weather and light afternoon – just weren’t very good. I tried several more times, but never re-created the perfect lighting and weather. Until 2012. I hit a day when it all came together. And I finished the item! I have another one, this time in Italy. I have now visited the Cinque Terre region of the Italian Riviera twice. But never during the so-called “golden hour,” and never at night. So that one is still on the list, even having already been there twice.

Oh, and one other thing, my list is much longer than yours 🙂 – too long to list here.

LightCentric

November 22, 2023

Good post and one that I am sure is a popular thought and theme. Thanks for the great content! LOL, my “photo-bucket list” is much longer, and the net is much wider than yours. 🙂 I have places in the world that are still on my list to photograph. But I have two takeaway thoughts from your post today:

First, I think your focus on places nearby is very much “on point.” Unless we live in one of the spots that are photo-destinations, we often tend to take nearby attractions for granted. I know. I have lived the bulk of my adult life in those kind of places. Other than sunsets on the Gulf, there is not much to inspire me here in coastal Florida. But that is probably more my own fault for not being creative and exploring, than any fault of the location. Your post has inspired me to look for nearby “bucket list” opportunities.

But the second thought is that sometimes you don’t get it right the first (or even second) time. So in my way of thinking, it remains on the list until you think you have. Back in the days of film, in the late 1990’s I shot a site up in the Michigan Upper Peninsula that is an iconic part of the “Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore” called “Miner’s Castle.” It is a shot that normally demands some specialized equipment, as it has some very high contrast elements from top to bottom. I never became adept at using my graduated ND filter, and my shots that year – though on a perfect weather and light afternoon – just weren’t very good. I tried several more times, but never re-created the perfect lighting and weather. Until 2012. I hit a day when it all came together. And I finished the item! I have another one, this time in Italy. I have now visited the Cinque Terre region of the Italian Riviera twice. But never during the so-called “golden hour,” and never at night. So that one is still on the list, even having already been there twice.

Oh, and one other thing, my list is much longer than yours 🙂 – too long to list here.

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