Into retirement

In 2007 I started working in a photography shop part time whilst doing my A Levels and shortly after I became the proud owner of this, my first SLR. I had always enjoyed photography but this opened the doors to true creativity. My first shot was of colleagues in the shop. Shot 834 I took my first fully manual exposure.

The first big trip was to the Lake District where I discovered that lugging the big thing around was entirely worth it and I've never looked back. This camera has accompanied me to 9 different countries and on countless trips from nights out in Dublin to trekking in the Thai jungle.

This camera has taken 24,297 shots and now goes on to my Grandma, who has always been a photographic inspiration, showing me slides of her adventures since I was very small.

I generally like getting rid of possessions and don't get attached to material things, but there's something magical about the way holding a camera makes you see and think about the world around you. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'll miss it but it's a pretty similar emotion...