Planning My Gap Year

Before starting university I will hope to take a gap year ( 4 months ) to travel. I will use this opportunity to build up my photojournalism portfolio. It was also be a good way to explore parts of the world I have yet to see and broaden my horizon with regards to where I would like to settle down/ return to. I Will also be on the look out for interesting stories to write/ document at the places I visit.

I have been looking at a website called Round The World Experts ( Here is the link ) and it has a service which allows you to type in the destinations you wish to visit and it will formulate a rough cost. From there an employee will call you and discuss your options. For now I am awaiting the call but I have planned to visit these following places with my friend:

Japan (Tokyo & Taiji) : to experience such an alien and advanced place. Plus in Taiji there is a cove where they continue to slaughter dolphins with the support of big companies as Seaworld. I would love to document this and make an effort to change this.

Australia: I have heard lots of amazing things about Australia and how laid back it is, which sounds fantastic as I have a particularly laid back nature. They have also an abundancy of natural wonders I would love to explore. For example, The Great Barrier Reef. I would love to scuba dive here and record how much it has changed/ been destroyed because of the intense tourism.

Thailand: I have been to Thailand before but have yet to see all of the Islands. Whilst there I noticed a great deal of corruption with regards to the sex trade. Thailand is one of the hotspots for the child sex trade. This is somthing I am really passionate into looking into and being a strong activist for. Thailand also has numerous problems with regards to animal cruelty, especially towards endagered animals such as Elephants, Leopards and TIgers

America: I would be planning on going to California, Miami and San Francisco. I have chosen California to look at the infamous life of the OC county college students and document their summer break, to see if it lives up to the stereo type. I also want to go to Miami to look at the rise in gang crimes within the area as crime has spiked significantly within the past 10 years.

The London College Of Communication Degree Show

As a leading university for media, LCC has been a front runner with regards to what university I'm thinking of going to. It has a specialist course for Photojournalism and Documentary photography. It has fantastic industry connections which would be so helpful to break straight into a career after uni. Although I missed the photography and photojournalism degree show, I decided to attend the Design degree show for all their other design based courses. I decided to do so as I thought it would be a really good idea to get a feel for the school, see the standard of work from students and also to see if I would be tempted by any of their other courses.

The first thing I noticed about the University was how open plan the design of it was. It was really spacious and modern with really great student facilities such as a great student cafe, common room and highly equipped class rooms. So by going to the school I was able to get a feel for it and I really really liked it. It was really welcoming and I could already envision myself fitting straight in.

Although the other courses where appealing, course that stood out to me most was Graphic Design. The pieces where so unique and really demonstrated the high standard produced and expected by the university.