{Feel free to skip the introduction and just scroll down to the images, I'm not saying anything important here} {Actually, feel free to ignore all the writing, it's just a waste of time}

I remembered recently that I had an account on Flickr where I uploaded some of my photography. The last of those uploads was in 2014 and I guess that's around when my last laptop died, I haven't had much access to a scanner since then either, which is why I stopped using the account.

I've only ever really used cheap 35mm colour film with various cameras, so that's what all of these images are. They're also, only scans of prints, because I still can't afford a negative scanner, so the quality isn't as good as it is in real life.

Anyway, I've had a look through the account and there are some alright photos on there intermingled with all the snapshots and experiments, and I've decided to share some of them on here. Photography is one of my passions and I think it's a shame I haven't shared much, if any, on here yet considering it's such a popular topic on Steemit.

Not to bore you much longer but I'm going to be spreading the images out over a number of thematic posts, the first of which, as you might have guessed if you read the title, is...

Home

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{taken just outside my backdoor one summer day}

Now, I consider many places to be my home, as Charles Manson once sang, Home is Where You're Happy, but for the purpose of this post I'm just going to focus on one of my homes. The home of my childhood and some of it's surrounding areas. By which I mean pretty much anywhere in Co. Kildare.

This next image is from a fairly well known area of Kildare, the Curragh. While mainly known for horse racing, the area is also home to a sometimes more controversial group.

{the quality of this one isn't great, very washed out, I'll have to have a look for the original print to see how it compares}

The Curragh is also home to an army base. Also, at a certain time of year you might be lucky enough to stumble upon some Psilocybe semilanceta, more commonly known as Liberty Caps, and maybe my favorite of all the fairy tale mushrooms. I don't have any pictures of either of those things though.

I'm going to try blast through these last few images because this photography post has more text than photos, haha.

{this is one of my favorite images from the early days, it's a bit soft but the camera/lens I took that photo with has never been the sharpest}

That was taken somewhere in Kildare town, I can't remember where exactly but it was around there somewhere.

This next one was taken in the town nearest to my home, it's only about a five minute drive away.

{I think I need to start retaking some of these photos, I feel my skill has improved over the last few years and I just keep seeing things I would do differently today}

That's the drawbridge over the Grand Canal in Monasterevin, the Venice of Ireland don't you know. I'm not sure how much use it gets these days but as a child I got to see it in action a few times, I even have a very vague memory of being allowed to press the button to make it go up. I'll have to look into that one.

And if you take only a few steps further back and turn to the right you might see something like this next photo.

{if you can't make it out, that's a horse crossing the river}

That right there is the River Barrow, longest of The Three Sisters and second longest river in Ireland. It was strange seeing a horse crossing the river.

And speaking of strange horses, I think I've shared this one before but, whatever, here's this curious little fella again.

{this is one of my favorite photos, I can't wait to get a good negative scanner so I can have a higher quality version}

I was bored one winter morning and decided to walk around with my camera to fill up the last few frames on a roll. I had tried taking a photo of my dog but he wasn't being very helpful, so I walk around the front of the house and this guy is just staring at me. I'm sure he was trying to talk to me but horse is one of the few languages I really struggle with.

And since we're on the topic of cold winter mornings, here's the view from my bed around sunrise after yet another night without sleep.

{it was the shadows that made me want to take this shot but they don't show up very well in this image}

Lack of sleep makes you do silly things sometimes. Also, is it just my imagination or is the sun brighter on a really cold and clear morning?

Ok, this has been a long post, and it's been my most personal, most intimate post to date. I mean, I've even let you into my bedroom. Actually, speaking of which, I'm going to have to ask you to leave now. I don't mean to be rude, but we have to start wrapping things up here, and what better way to close things out than going for a nice little walk? Oh, I know, let me grab my longboard, that's way more fun than walking.

Some of my friends came to visit me a short time after I first got my longboard and a knock-off penny board, so we decided to go down to a little humpback bridge about a five or ten minute walk from my house and have some fun.

It's not a huge bridge by any means but this next picture really doesn't do it justice. It's a lot steeper than it looks, and it's even steeper and a much longer descent going the other direction. It's still only a beginner hill, but I was (and still am) a beginner, and my friends had never been on a longboard or penny board before.

Oh, and a little word of advice, you probably shouldn't be bombing hills on a little plastic cruiser board. While nothing bad happened that day, my friend on the penny board had a pretty bad wipeout a year or two later. But that's a story for another time.

Alright, that's it, I'm done. I had wanted to just share a few photos but instead I've given you most of my life story. I don't think my next photography posts will be so verbose, but I was having fun going through the memories these photos captured.

And, hey, it's about time I was more personal on here.
Speaking of which, this is me:

Or, well, it was me from around 2012/2013. I was going to say that that is the closest I've ever gotten to taking a selfie but then I remembered this was a thing:

That was an actual selfie I took once.

While those might be the only pictures of me that exist, you may end up seeing more of me in the future. I know I have a video camera around here somewhere because I'd like to enter the open mic week contest at some point, although I've been considering setting up a separate account first because I'd like to breath some life into my acoustic music project.

Right, well I think that's probably enough digital narcissism from me for one day. If you've managed to make it through that post then I thank you for your interest and time.