I'm pretty much self-taught through the tolerance and patience of many friends along the way. There are dozens of photographers whose work I greatly admire, but honestly, I get most of my inspiration from musicians and painters. Charles Lloyd and Theolonius Monk come to mind. Picasso for his relentless pushing of boundaries and fearless experimentation. To keep my fresh I mostly make myself work with very minimal tools, a particular camera and one fixed focal-length lens. If I've been doing something in film, I might put the pin-hole lens cap on my digital camera and take a trip somewhere with just that. I spent a week in New York with nothing but my Ricoh GR Digital. The next trip only the XPan. I love the challenge of creating a variety of imagery while carrying around the least possible amount of crap. Harris Beach 5

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