I’ve been incredibly lucky in my 25 years on this earth. I’ve formed relationships with the presidents of fortune 500 companies, put millionaires on speed dial, worked with visionaries, and found myself in a place to learn something with every encounter. The most succinct way to distill the lessons I’ve gained from each person is inspiration should be a constant pursuit.

Currently, photographers are my favorite life study. Learning how art comes from each moment, instead of what we think of as staged advertisements and created imagery. The most profound images that you’ve ever seen were most likely taken by a person living in a moment who was talented/smart/crazy enough to put the camera to their face and snap the shot. I love the idea of being able to communicate a moment through an image, but I’ve never been talented in that fashion.

Still I maintain that inspiration is a drug to artists and businessmen alike. The ability to strip away selfishness long enough to live in a moment, stop thinking about tomorrow, thinking only about what opportunity is presenting itself at this very second and snap a picture (or start fanning the flames of a business) is a contributing factor to greatness.

Through my friend Anthony, I was introduced to another local photographer named Micah. Like Anthony, he has a sixth sense for beauty. Like a chess game these two walk around the streets of Asheville, find a seemingly insignificant setting/person/moment and move 10 steps ahead in their mind knowing exactly how to transform that thing into art. I saw it for myself modeling for a test shoot. These two flew into action adjusting lighting, aperture, flux capacitation (I don’t know the gory details of photography) creating in real life the art that they had already made in their own minds.

It’s incredible to see how thirsty they are for inspiration, and at the same time how in tune with the world they are; which allows them to find it in simplicity.

Photographer friends:
Anthony: http://abellemare.com
Micah: http://micahmack.com/