This is Avaryanax, and this is the Candid Frame.

Macro or close-up photography provides a unique perspective,

the ability to reveal the beauty of the smallest elements in our world.

There's beauty to be found there that's unlike any other photographic subject.

Our guest, Mike Mott, knows that, and his images reveal that in a beautiful and an arresting

way.

But the interesting part of his story is not just what he chooses to photograph, but how he

succeeds in making a professional creative life based on the small details that most people fail to observe.

Well, Mike, welcome to the Candid Frame.

Hey, thanks a lot.

I appreciate you having me out. Tell me about when you started doing photography, particularly doing it professionally,

you were already an owner of a business.

You had a painting business.

Talk about the transition from that

to becoming eventually a professional photographer, writer, and instructor.

Sure. I actually had two businesses prior to the photography business, and one was a custom

woodworking, which I built custom furniture for seven years, and I kind of got burned out on that.

And then I merged into this painting business. It was just kind of by accident, but I did that for

16 years as a painting contractor. And in 2001, two, the economy in the Detroit area here was

started to really drop off with the auto industry. So my schedule of work dropped off, and that gave me more time to spend on my photography.

So that kind of slowly built up.

But by about 2004, I actually started to submit some images and articles to magazines.

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