The one that started it all

May not look like something spectacular, but this photo is arguably the one that sparked my interest in photography.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Irish education system, Transition year (~grade 10/year 10) is an optional year between after the Junior Certificate exams (GCSEs or between middle and high school) where the main focus is personal development and extracurricular activities. Normally students do classes that they would not do otherwise so I was force to do art. The teacher, Ray Mullen set an assignment to go out and take photos of the local area. So I took Mum's Canon S5, stupidly switched it to manual mode (having never used a camera before) and off I went.

So thank you Mr. Mullen. Without that assignment I'd never have given photography a second thought.