You are probably looking at the title of this blog thinking huh? Beards what?! I thought this was mainly a wedding blog! Let me explain;) As some know, when I married my amazing husband we moved to Macon, Georgia. We have really grown to love Macon & all its charm. About six months ago Ben started growing his beard out. I had NO clue how much guys got into their beard. I also had no clue there were so many different oils you could use for it or even specific brushes or combs that were best for it (what the heck?!). I kept thinking dang it would be cool to photograph men with beards and then do an art gallery or something. Ha! Super random & weird I know, but weird is my favorite. I had never really done a personal photography project before so I was intrigued. Fast forward several months later & on the way back from a photography conference called Imaging USA in Nashville, all the ideas started to form into one idea. Usually when photography conferences are over my brain is exploding with ideas and I can barely think straight. I felt sorry for my friend Dabe because I wouldn't shut up on the way home. I have many creative friends in Macon so our ideas kind of explode off each other when we start brain storming. Dabe, being the amazing graphic designer she is (& stellar photographer), designed the logo for me. I asked my friends Lee, Tyler, Andy, and of course my husband Ben if they would let me do a shoot of them to get things started. About a week after getting back from Nashville we launched 'Beards of Macon' on social media (February 10, 2015). As soon as I launched it people were asking me, why not Beards of Gray or Beards of Milledgeville, etc. I just told them that this is where I live now and it's what I want to support and help grow. Not only are we (Ben helps me out with it now) getting to meet some really cool Macon people we are getting to meet cool people from the surrounding areas too. As long as the shoot is done in Macon you can be from anywhere. I love it when the shoot brings someone into Macon because they will probably buy something from Macon while they are here (yay for local businesses!). We literally met a guy on a business trip from Kansas the other day while at Just Tap'd and got to photograph him. We love Macon and we hope this brings more joy and fun to this awesome place.
Here are a few that I've done so far...
I love how different everyone is. I'm not into JUST photographing people with beards. I'm interested in the person behind the beard and learning about them. We get quotes from everyone that we photograph. Sometimes the quotes are deep and sometimes super simple. I love that it always changes.
We have since started selling t-shirts & decals. We are not wanting to get into the t-shirt business but it's been fun having people support the idea. Just Tap'd downtown is selling them for us! Beer & beards just kinda go together right?!
Since all of this started we've had several opportunities open up. This week we have our first three events that we will be doing portraits at: The 11th Hour Reader Choice Awards - Just Tap'd Craft Beer Festival - Beards Bourbon & Bacon
We finally got approved to do an art show at The 567 Center for Renewal Downtown Macon in July! I'm super stoked about that!
We have a giveaway going on for one of our t-shirts as well as a Beards Bourbon & Bacon ticket! The contest ends Friday night! By visiting us on Facebook that enters you in once and by following us on Twitter it enters you in again!
Thanks for reading!
Ashah & Ben
Beards of Macon Facebook
Beards of Macon Instagram
Beards of Macon Twitter