Latest / Stay Outta My Fridge / Beard Laws Podcast Episode 10 - Interview With Greg Anderson

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Beard Laws Podcast Episode 10 - Interview With Greg Anderson · Stay Outta My Fridge

0:21
Speaker 1: Beard Law number ten, the ranking law. This is the
0:23
Speaker 1: law to define how great your beard truly is. So
0:26
Speaker 1: everybody listening to this podcast, one we need you to do.
0:29
Speaker 1: Find a picture of me and my beard, and I
0:31
Speaker 1: want you to rank it one through ten. Shoot me
0:33
Speaker 1: an email Matt atbeardlaws dot com and I'll get the
0:36
Speaker 1: tally up. We'll let everybody know how truly great you
0:39
Speaker 1: think my beard is. What's up, everybody? Welcome back? This
0:43
Speaker 1: is beard Laws Podcast episode number ten. I really appreciate
0:47
Speaker 1: you guys coming back. Tenth episode where is the Time Gone?
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this episode. I had the pleasure
0:54
Speaker 1: of speaking with Greg Anderson, hell of a photographer from Vegas.
0:59
Speaker 1: He's the initial photographer of the National Beard and Mustache Competition.
1:03
Speaker 1: This was his seventh contest that he's done and the
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Speaker 1: photos are absolutely amazing. Check out beardlaws dot com slash
1:11
Speaker 1: podcast for the links to not only his website, but
1:14
Speaker 1: his Facebook and his Instagram where you can see a
1:17
Speaker 1: bunch of these amazing photos. Again, Greg from the Two
1:20
Speaker 1: Beards One Record segment wasn't able to make it. Logan
1:23
Speaker 1: with Sports and year in my Thoughts was also a
1:25
Speaker 1: no show. So what I need you to do is
1:28
Speaker 1: email Logan at beard laws dot com. Give him a
1:30
Speaker 1: bunch of shit, get after him, tell him you miss him,
1:33
Speaker 1: tell me want him back.
1:34
Speaker 2: Bust his balls. He needs it.
1:36
Speaker 1: Let's get him motivated. Let's get him back on here
1:37
Speaker 1: for episode eleven. All right, without further ado, here's the
1:40
Speaker 1: interview with Greg Anderson. All Right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks
1:47
Speaker 1: for tuning into the Beard Laws podcast. Got an interview
1:50
Speaker 1: coming up, and we got one hell of an intro.
1:52
Speaker 2: Are you guys ready for it?
1:53
Speaker 1: He's a man from Vegas who rolled the dice like
1:56
Speaker 1: a shooter on the craps table, but on a photography
1:58
Speaker 1: career and never seven now. A man with a better
2:01
Speaker 1: eye than a falcon, a man that can take any
2:03
Speaker 1: situation and make beautiful artwork out of it. A man
2:06
Speaker 1: that is the award winning official photographer of the National
2:09
Speaker 1: Beard and Mustache Competition, the one, the only Greg Anderson.
2:14
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, I caught that for an intro.
2:16
Speaker 3: Huh?
2:17
Speaker 2: That that hell's nice. I think I'm a self appointed
2:21
Speaker 2: photographer for the National Beard and Mustache Championships. I don't
2:25
Speaker 2: know if anybody actually appointed me that. I just started
2:28
Speaker 2: showing up and they couldn't get rid of me.
2:30
Speaker 1: Hey, that's perfect because I've seen on many websites and
2:32
Speaker 1: a couple of articles that you are the official. So
2:36
Speaker 1: even if you started off that way, I think you're
2:38
Speaker 1: in it now. I think you're in it to win it.
2:40
Speaker 2: I think the interviewers take liberties, and you know, it's
2:43
Speaker 2: always fun to read what's in those articles.
2:46
Speaker 4: And oh yeah, it's gotta be awesome too. Just having
2:49
Speaker 4: a media pass to be able to go to one
2:51
Speaker 4: of these events.
2:52
Speaker 2: It is. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, ever since
2:55
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, it's been that long. Huh, yeah, I've been
2:58
Speaker 2: This is my seventh one. I guess that's awesome. Where
3:01
Speaker 2: was the first one that you went to? You remember?
3:03
Speaker 2: The first one was twenty thirteen New Orleans, Louisiana. And
3:08
Speaker 2: actually I missed the Vegas one in twenty twelve, which
3:11
Speaker 2: is how I found out about the whole competition in
3:14
Speaker 2: the first place. Yeah. I saw the news story and
3:18
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that's going on, and it's right.
3:22
Speaker 2: It was a half mile from my studio. Oh wow,
3:25
Speaker 2: And so I immediately started searching it out and found
3:29
Speaker 2: the old producer at the time and started sending emails
3:34
Speaker 2: and calling whoever I could and tried to get, you know,
3:37
Speaker 2: anybody who was left from the competition into my studio,
3:41
Speaker 2: and he told me that everybody had disbanded and gone
3:43
Speaker 2: back to wherever they came from. I was welcome to
3:46
Speaker 2: join them next year, and it was in New Orleans,
3:50
Speaker 2: so I kind of put it on the calendar, watched
3:52
Speaker 2: it for a while, and kind of toyed with the idea,
3:55
Speaker 2: and then you know, the opportunity came up and New
3:59
Speaker 2: Orleans Beard come petition House of Blues. You can't beat that.
4:03
Speaker 2: It sounded magical, so it.
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Speaker 4: Still does sound magical, and I mean even this year,
4:08
Speaker 4: right outside of Chicago. I mean Chicago's an amazing city
4:11
Speaker 4: as well, with some history.
4:13
Speaker 2: It was fun, you know, it was outside Chicago, like
4:15
Speaker 2: you said, and we didn't really get I didn't really
4:18
Speaker 2: get into the city too much, and my schedule was
4:21
Speaker 2: sort of tight with with photo shoots and meetings to
4:25
Speaker 2: begin with, so I couldn't really take too much time
4:28
Speaker 2: and go into the city and explore. But it was
4:30
Speaker 2: a great time though.
4:31
Speaker 4: Absolutely, what got you into photography there had to be
4:35
Speaker 4: like a moment or just some something that usually triggers
4:38
Speaker 4: everybody to kind of get into what they have a
4:40
Speaker 4: passion for.
4:43
Speaker 2: Well, late nineties, I lived in Lake Tahoe, California, had
4:47
Speaker 2: a point shoot camera and just started shooting what I
4:51
Speaker 2: was into, so snowboarding, We'll go up to the mountains
4:54
Speaker 2: and shoot my friends and all that stuff. Ended up
4:58
Speaker 2: moving to New York City from Lake Tahoe, so that
5:03
Speaker 2: interest continued when I went to New York and it
5:07
Speaker 2: was just there's you know, New York is just such overstimulation,
5:11
Speaker 2: like every single day on the streets and the subways,
5:14
Speaker 2: and so then I took it to another level and
5:16
Speaker 2: got a job at a film processing lab and ended
5:21
Speaker 2: up going to the International Center of Photography there in
5:23
Speaker 2: New York City for a couple of years. Oh that's awesome, man.
5:26
Speaker 4: It's crazy to think now, like most of the time,
5:27
Speaker 4: at least you know where we're from. Like you try
5:29
Speaker 4: to go into a store to have some film and
5:32
Speaker 4: everything's shipped out somewhere or.
5:33
Speaker 2: Kiosk, you know what I mean. The days of the
5:35
Speaker 2: old thirty five is just gone.
5:38
Speaker 4: And it's sad to me. I have a buddy who's
5:41
Speaker 4: trying to bring it back, but he's having to buy
5:43
Speaker 4: like lots off eBay, of a decade old film, you know, well,
5:49
Speaker 4: you know, it's still fairly available and people like me
5:53
Speaker 4: who learned it way back in the day figured out
5:55
Speaker 4: the cheapest way to process it, which is doing it yourself. Absolutely,
5:59
Speaker 4: I still shoot black and white film and even color
6:01
Speaker 4: now they have kits for developing color film yourself.
6:05
Speaker 2: I don't really shoot thirty five millimeters anymore. I think
6:07
Speaker 2: that's in my world that's been replaced. Oh yeah, so
6:11
Speaker 2: I still I shoot medium in large format. Ye, mostly
6:15
Speaker 2: black and white, but a little bit of color here
6:16
Speaker 2: and there, like I said, and I still enjoy it,
6:20
Speaker 2: love it. I've got a big camera collection, and you
6:23
Speaker 2: know it inspires me sometimes just take an old camera
6:26
Speaker 2: off the shelf and walk the streets with it. That's amazing.
6:29
Speaker 4: I was going to ask you, you must have just
6:31
Speaker 4: a handful of different ones, and there's got to be
6:33
Speaker 4: one or two that are just a little bit more special,
6:36
Speaker 4: whether it was dropped and you remember that time in
6:38
Speaker 4: the late nineties, just the character of them has to
6:41
Speaker 4: be pretty incredible.
6:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the one for me is I have a
6:46
Speaker 2: rollly flex twin lens from nineteen sixty one. Oh wow,
6:50
Speaker 2: And I bought it when I lived in. I lived
6:52
Speaker 2: in Manhattan for a while, but then you know, I
6:54
Speaker 2: got chased out to Brooklyn and about nineteen ninety nine,
6:57
Speaker 2: the rent started getting really expensive, and so oh yeah,
7:00
Speaker 2: I went out there and there was an old used
7:02
Speaker 2: camera shop right down the street. I lived in a
7:04
Speaker 2: Polish neighborhood, and so I went down there, and you know,
7:09
Speaker 2: I kept going in and going in. I had my
7:11
Speaker 2: eye on this rollie and I finally had the money
7:13
Speaker 2: to buy it, and so I went in and I
7:16
Speaker 2: still have it and use it to this day. That's awesome.
7:19
Speaker 2: That's the one. That's the one.
7:21
Speaker 4: You are an award winning photographer. If you had one
7:25
Speaker 4: of your greatest awards that you won, what do you think.
7:28
Speaker 2: It would be? You know, it stems from this project.
7:30
Speaker 2: Actually in twenty thirteen, like I said, down in New Orleans,
7:33
Speaker 2: I shot that imagery and I put it on Facebook
7:37
Speaker 2: as kind of a delivery method, so everybody could go
7:39
Speaker 2: on Facebook and just pull the photos off, just like
7:42
Speaker 2: I did this year. Yep. Just makes it really easy
7:45
Speaker 2: for everybody. And from that project, I created a calendar
7:52
Speaker 2: called twenty fourteen Year of the Beard. Yeah, and I
7:56
Speaker 2: printed out a couple hundred of them. And I sold them,
7:59
Speaker 2: and I also sent it out to advertising agencies as
8:04
Speaker 2: a promotional piece for to sort of rebrand myself as
8:08
Speaker 2: a portraitist instead of just this general photographer who shoots
8:13
Speaker 2: architecture and whatever and whatever else. I wanted to be
8:17
Speaker 2: known a little bit more as a portraitist, and that
8:19
Speaker 2: was very, very effective. I entered that calendar into the
8:24
Speaker 2: advertising awards that everybody knows as the Addies, and on
8:28
Speaker 2: a gold local, regional, and national Addy for that calendar.
8:33
Speaker 2: So it got me a lot of publicity, a lot
8:35
Speaker 2: of press, a lot of work. So I'm going to say, yeah,
8:39
Speaker 2: with success comes more and more work. But if it's
8:43
Speaker 2: your passion, what's the old saying if you don't work
8:46
Speaker 2: a day in your life, if you do what you
8:47
Speaker 2: love or something.
8:48
Speaker 4: Like that, Yeah, that's good in theory, but it's gonna say,
8:52
Speaker 4: I grow a beer and it's a lot of work.
8:53
Speaker 2: I love to do it, but geez, well, anybody who
8:55
Speaker 2: runs their own business knows that. You know, probably ten
8:59
Speaker 2: percent of what I do is taking photos. So you know,
9:02
Speaker 2: there's all the invoicing, estimating, all the promotional stuff, marketing, retouching,
9:11
Speaker 2: Everything that isn't photography is like ninety percent of my
9:16
Speaker 2: day and then you know, on the lucky occasions, I
9:19
Speaker 2: get to go out and shoot all day and get
9:21
Speaker 2: those opportunities for myself. You know, I go out and
9:24
Speaker 2: shoot on the street a lot, and you know, just
9:29
Speaker 2: throw it on Instagram, keep it fresh, come up with
9:32
Speaker 2: new lighting and portraiture techniques, film cameras out. So yeah,
9:36
Speaker 2: it is what I was kind of brings me to
9:38
Speaker 2: my next question.
9:38
Speaker 1: I mean, being a photographer and the eye that you have,
9:41
Speaker 1: you must see a shot in almost like any situation.
9:43
Speaker 2: Is it hard for you to turn it off? It
9:45
Speaker 2: is sometimes yeah, And you know, family vacations are those
9:48
Speaker 2: times where I have to sort of modulate, you know,
9:50
Speaker 2: I have to kind of pull back a little bit.
9:53
Speaker 2: I can't be gone all day doing whatever. I have
9:56
Speaker 2: to sort of be there with my family. You know,
9:59
Speaker 2: I've my kids are ten and twelve. My wife and
10:01
Speaker 2: I've been married for quite a while, so she sort
10:05
Speaker 2: of knows when I need to get cut loose and
10:08
Speaker 2: like go do my own thing. And then I sort
10:10
Speaker 2: of know where she's had enough of that, and so
10:13
Speaker 2: there's you know, we've strike that balance at some point. Absolutely,
10:18
Speaker 2: you always have a camera that you carry with you, yes, yeah,
10:22
Speaker 2: And it varies from you know, month to month or whatever.
10:26
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'll just carry a film camera and a couple
10:30
Speaker 2: of rolls of different speed black and white film for whatever,
10:34
Speaker 2: you know, whatever situation I'm getting myself in. Ye, And
10:39
Speaker 2: so sometimes I'll just you know, I'll carry my backup
10:42
Speaker 2: digital camera and a fifty millimeter lens and just walk
10:45
Speaker 2: the streets and see what happens. Yes, but yes, always
10:49
Speaker 2: a camera.
10:50
Speaker 1: How do you feel about mobile phones having great cameras
10:53
Speaker 1: and everyone these days thinking that they're photographers.
10:57
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny. I mean, anybody can sort of take
10:59
Speaker 2: picure now, which is great. It sort of democratizes the
11:02
Speaker 2: whole process. And everybody's kind of got it at their fingertips,
11:05
Speaker 2: and so there's an influx of imagery. There's just a
11:10
Speaker 2: glut or like an overabundance of stuff lying at you
11:13
Speaker 2: all the time, which I don't mind. And I use
11:17
Speaker 2: that camera myself, which you know, it's pretty much replaced
11:21
Speaker 2: the point and shoot camera because it's the slim camera
11:24
Speaker 2: that's always on you. It's in your pocket, and that's
11:27
Speaker 2: great for what it is. It can't it can't do
11:32
Speaker 2: every photo shoot that I get called on the phone.
11:35
Speaker 2: Can't really do that scenario. You know. I do sort
11:39
Speaker 2: of bigger, higher production value portrait and lifestyle shoots where
11:47
Speaker 2: you know, you're scouting, you're hiring talent, you're lighting the
11:51
Speaker 2: whole scene, you're waiting for the light to be right.
11:54
Speaker 2: So there's all these different variables that make what I
11:56
Speaker 2: do sort of outside of what the phone can do.
11:59
Speaker 2: So you know, I don't mind it. It doesn't it's
12:01
Speaker 2: not like it's eating into my business. But I just
12:05
Speaker 2: what I do mind is is clients or people and
12:08
Speaker 2: I immediately know who they are when they call me
12:11
Speaker 2: because they'll you know, reference iPhone photography or they'll say
12:17
Speaker 2: we're either going to have you do it, or our
12:19
Speaker 2: in house guy with their phone or whatever, and I go, okay,
12:22
Speaker 2: you're not a client that I want to work with.
12:24
Speaker 4: Probably yeah, right, you mean, so you can't just slide
12:27
Speaker 4: it in portrait mode, take a picture and be like, man,
12:30
Speaker 4: there you go, put that on your on your calendar,
12:32
Speaker 4: put that in your magazine.
12:34
Speaker 2: Well, I think people will see through that, now, you
12:36
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like photos, some photos from a
12:39
Speaker 2: phone are great online or whatever, but a lot of
12:41
Speaker 2: what I do is still in print and so I
12:44
Speaker 2: get Yeah, I get bummed when people don't know the
12:46
Speaker 2: difference I guess quality wise.
12:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's sad in those regards like everything like me,
12:53
Speaker 4: I mean you can see the crazy vinyl collection behind me,
12:55
Speaker 4: you know, like everything kind of comes full circle and
12:57
Speaker 4: you're starting to see you know, people that are getting
12:59
Speaker 4: back into the film and kind of bring that technology back,
13:02
Speaker 4: which is pretty cool.
13:04
Speaker 2: It is cool, and I really appreciate that. And I've,
13:07
Speaker 2: like I said, been shooting film for twenty five years
13:09
Speaker 2: or something, and so I've seen it be the staple
13:14
Speaker 2: and then go completely away and then come back for
13:18
Speaker 2: like a niche market and so which I love because
13:21
Speaker 2: you know, it's more available now. And you know, somebody,
13:25
Speaker 2: the Impossible Project bought the rights to Polaroid and they're
13:27
Speaker 2: trying to reproduce that same quality I think at some point.
13:30
Speaker 2: But so yeah, it opens it up. And I still
13:33
Speaker 2: have Polaroid cameras and all kinds of film cameras that
13:36
Speaker 2: I love using, and so more available to film is
13:39
Speaker 2: the more I'll use it and be able to you know,
13:42
Speaker 2: expand on that, and.
13:43
Speaker 4: The cheaper it's going to be, you know, scamaging this
13:45
Speaker 4: place and that place and they can charge whatever they
13:47
Speaker 4: want exactly.
13:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, well some of those that have gone out of production,
13:51
Speaker 2: that's still that way. Oh yeah, holding right on. I'd
13:56
Speaker 2: love to get my hands on, but just can't, you know,
14:00
Speaker 2: or take the chance on it being expired and bad
14:03
Speaker 2: or whatever.
14:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because I'm sure there's not much of a
14:06
Speaker 1: return policy on that.
14:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I read that your kids got your shirt
14:09
Speaker 2: that said number one dad. Does it still fit?
14:12
Speaker 4: Because I know a lot of the stuff that my
14:13
Speaker 4: daughter got me it doesn't quite fit, you know. Fatherhood
14:16
Speaker 4: is just hitting me hard.
14:17
Speaker 2: Well, and after you wash them a couple of times,
14:19
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, they get a little tight. But yeah,
14:22
Speaker 2: I think that was in my bio and so people
14:24
Speaker 2: sort of copied my bio and put that out there,
14:27
Speaker 2: which is funny because my thing about photographer's bios is
14:30
Speaker 2: a lot of it is, you know, made up shit,
14:33
Speaker 2: like with people talking in the third person.
14:35
Speaker 4: Yeahuckled when I saw that, and I normally don't talk
14:38
Speaker 4: about then the third.
14:39
Speaker 2: Person except for in my bios. So yeah, I just
14:43
Speaker 2: kind of threw something in there, and I find you know,
14:45
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody gets that deep in my website,
14:48
Speaker 2: but if they do, then I know who it is
14:49
Speaker 2: and I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, that was one of them.
14:51
Speaker 4: I would highly expect when I interviewed you to have
14:54
Speaker 4: the number one Dad shirt on. So I'm a little
14:57
Speaker 4: left down there, but uh.
14:58
Speaker 2: A short notice, you know. So if your kids are.
15:02
Speaker 4: Listening, you know, Christmas is coming up, maybe you guys
15:04
Speaker 4: can get them a new shirt number one Dad in.
15:05
Speaker 2: An EXL or double XL. Yeah right, Dad life.
15:10
Speaker 1: You can't even count the number of photos that you've taken,
15:13
Speaker 1: but there has to be a couple that have kind
15:15
Speaker 1: of stood out to you. Is there one or a
15:17
Speaker 1: couple that might be some of your favorite photos?
15:20
Speaker 2: Oh so yeah, I'd have to break that down in categories,
15:23
Speaker 2: like my favorite you know, my favorite photos tend to
15:26
Speaker 2: be the ones of my kids. Obviously, I have one
15:30
Speaker 2: printed large on my mantle of them down in California
15:33
Speaker 2: and Southern California, like in twenty seventeen. That is my
15:37
Speaker 2: like standout favorite that I've ever taken. My favorite shot
15:44
Speaker 2: professionally that I've ever taked, Like this beard stuff is
15:47
Speaker 2: right up there. You know, I love doing it every year.
15:50
Speaker 2: It is you know it like it's the funnest shoot
15:54
Speaker 2: I have all year. Yeah, and some of the imagery
15:57
Speaker 2: from it, and just the appreciation that everybody you know
16:00
Speaker 2: gives from from that project. It's just it's it's it's
16:04
Speaker 2: a great, great environment to shoot in and always get
16:08
Speaker 2: great shots from it. Beards do make great models. I
16:11
Speaker 2: mean they do, you know what. And there's a famous
16:14
Speaker 2: quote from a photographer that says, if your pictures aren't
16:16
Speaker 2: interesting enough, stand in front of more interesting subject matter.
16:20
Speaker 2: And I'm paraphrasing because you know, I don't remember it exactly,
16:24
Speaker 2: but that's yeah, that's the gist of it. And so
16:27
Speaker 2: that's kind of what I ended up doing.
16:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm a big baseball fan as well Pirates fan,
16:33
Speaker 4: of course, you know.
16:34
Speaker 2: I just I love those baseball ones.
16:35
Speaker 4: The way that those guys get, the old school mustaches,
16:38
Speaker 4: the old school uniforms, those are are some of my
16:41
Speaker 4: favorite ones.
16:41
Speaker 2: To look through your album. There was a couple of
16:44
Speaker 2: guys this year, the guy from Cincy who's always got
16:46
Speaker 2: the rest UNI and then the the other guy in a.
16:49
Speaker 4: More old school What if you can even pick one?
16:53
Speaker 4: And I don't want any of these bearded guys to
16:56
Speaker 4: get jealous or upset, but is there a favorite beard
17:00
Speaker 4: that you ever shot. They just kind of stands out.
17:02
Speaker 2: Uh, there's there was a couple, so I'll mention a
17:05
Speaker 2: few of them. So I got to put I'll give
17:08
Speaker 2: you a top three or four whatever. Yeah. MJ. Johnson
17:13
Speaker 2: always stand out just visually on camera. It always looks good.
17:20
Speaker 2: I hadn't shot him in anything other than his style
17:24
Speaker 2: look and so this time we did like a downlook
17:27
Speaker 2: and then a natural and then one with rubber bands,
17:30
Speaker 2: and so he's always he's always stand out. This guy
17:35
Speaker 2: behind me up on the wall, though I don't know
17:38
Speaker 2: you're using the video on this incredib Beard Isaiah Webb.
17:43
Speaker 2: I photographed him a couple of times and he's always
17:46
Speaker 2: with the designs just over the top. And and quite
17:52
Speaker 2: a few others. Gary Faulkner comes to mind. Yeah, I
17:56
Speaker 2: don't want to hurt any feelings. And like I said, Beard,
17:58
Speaker 2: a gentlemen that are going to listen to this, I
18:00
Speaker 2: put him on the spot. Don't don't blame him. It's me.
18:04
Speaker 2: And you know what what I really enjoy and what
18:08
Speaker 2: I've come to love over the last couple of competitions
18:10
Speaker 2: are the people who come out of nowhere. The oh,
18:16
Speaker 2: I'll give you one. Madison rally from Portland, Oregon. I
18:19
Speaker 2: shot the beard comp in twenty fourteen. There, I don't
18:22
Speaker 2: think it, to my knowledge, nobody had ever heard of
18:25
Speaker 2: the guy. And he walks in and wins the thing,
18:27
Speaker 2: and he takes best in Show and gets the trip
18:30
Speaker 2: to Austria or where the World's was that year. Who
18:34
Speaker 2: coincidentally shaved his beard off today for charity. Wow, And
18:39
Speaker 2: so yeah, they'll shout out to Madison for doing his
18:43
Speaker 2: charitable work. So that's amazing, which brings me to another
18:47
Speaker 2: little tangent, like I love that the fact that all
18:51
Speaker 2: of these competitions they're all for charity. They give money
18:55
Speaker 2: to charitable organizations, and I think that's amazing and it's
18:58
Speaker 2: one of the things that now I don't think it's
19:01
Speaker 2: talked about enough. It's like, oh, look at these wacky
19:03
Speaker 2: beards in the stories, and they fail to mention all
19:07
Speaker 2: the time the money that goes to the charitable organization.
19:10
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's yeah, that's an amazing thing for beard
19:13
Speaker 2: laws my brand. What I did is a couple of
19:16
Speaker 2: years ago, my brother got cancer, so he was through
19:19
Speaker 2: the treatments and stuff at the Richard Y Winter Cancer
19:22
Speaker 2: Center at the hospital where I work. And the TVs
19:25
Speaker 2: are fifteen inch crttvs terriblees like he's sitting in the chair,
19:30
Speaker 2: they're probably seven eight foot in there trying to watch it.
19:33
Speaker 2: He looks at me, he's, you know, not feeling real well.
19:35
Speaker 4: He goes, I can't even tell if it's the new
19:37
Speaker 4: prices right or the old one, because I can't tell
19:39
Speaker 4: if Drew carries fat or not. Right then and there,
19:43
Speaker 4: I was like, man, I got to come up with
19:45
Speaker 4: a way to get these replaced.
19:46
Speaker 2: So I talked to a couple of people.
19:47
Speaker 4: In the hospital, cut out of the budget, cut out
19:50
Speaker 4: of the budget more or less. They told me, if
19:52
Speaker 4: you want to upgrade them, you got to donate the
19:54
Speaker 4: money yourself.
19:55
Speaker 2: Exactly what can I do?
19:56
Speaker 4: So I created Beard Laws and as of today, I
20:00
Speaker 4: donated just over seventy two hundred dollars in a couple
20:03
Speaker 4: of months, and with the potential of about three thousand
20:06
Speaker 4: more that's going into it. By the end of the year,
20:08
Speaker 4: we're going to replace eleven bays of the treatment center.
20:11
Speaker 4: They're putting two more in, so hopefully I'm going to
20:13
Speaker 4: pitch in and do that. So, I mean, it's just
20:15
Speaker 4: maybe it's just something about growing a beard that just
20:18
Speaker 4: it's like, man, I got.
20:18
Speaker 2: To get back to the people. Well, great work, man,
20:22
Speaker 2: congratsa thank you.
20:23
Speaker 4: It's something that that I've been passionate about. And it
20:26
Speaker 4: just kind of segues with, you know, the charitable work
20:28
Speaker 4: and maybe I could have been him going to Chicago
20:31
Speaker 4: and no name, but it just didn't work out for
20:33
Speaker 4: me this year, and the fact that I have no
20:35
Speaker 4: idea how to style as crazy.
20:36
Speaker 2: As them yet. Yeah, but that's what I want to do.
20:39
Speaker 4: I want to get to one of these events and
20:41
Speaker 4: be able to have a conversation with some of these
20:43
Speaker 4: guys and pick up some tips and tricks.
20:44
Speaker 2: You know. Well, they happen every year and I'll be there.
20:49
Speaker 2: So what's the longest year Beard's ever been a little
20:55
Speaker 2: bit longer than what it is now. So I'm, you know,
20:58
Speaker 2: the sort of unkept business beard type and the low
21:02
Speaker 2: maintenance sort of guy. And actually, you know, a couple
21:08
Speaker 2: of years ago it got pretty long and then I
21:12
Speaker 2: don't know, it turned summer here, And I.
21:13
Speaker 4: Mean, so if you want, do you want to tell us,
21:16
Speaker 4: like about your gallery, how people can you know, contact
21:19
Speaker 4: you for work, how they can purchase your work if
21:22
Speaker 4: it's for sale.
21:23
Speaker 2: Anything like that. If you want to kind of, you know,
21:25
Speaker 2: talk about that. Sure. My gallery is in the Arts
21:28
Speaker 2: District in Las Vegas. You can catch me here pretty
21:33
Speaker 2: much all the time. It's actually where I do a
21:35
Speaker 2: lot of my post production work and my photoshop stuff whatever.
21:39
Speaker 2: The gallery has about twenty to twenty three beard and
21:44
Speaker 2: my best championship photographs in it from over the past
21:48
Speaker 2: seven years, just a selection of mine that you know
21:51
Speaker 2: that I love. And so everybody's free to come see
21:54
Speaker 2: at any time, reach out any way you want. I'm
21:59
Speaker 2: always here, So Instagram, Underscore, Greg Anderson, Facebook, Greg Anderson Photography,
22:06
Speaker 2: go to my website Greg Andersonphoto dot com. Any of
22:09
Speaker 2: those will work. That will all link my contact information,
22:13
Speaker 2: and yeah, feel free to reach out absolutely.
22:16
Speaker 1: What's next for Greg Anderson Photography? You got any big
22:19
Speaker 1: plans coming up? You got some shoes?
22:21
Speaker 2: So yeah. So I drove to Chicago from Las Vegas
22:26
Speaker 2: to shoot the Nationals that just happened, and along the
22:29
Speaker 2: way I made appointments with advertising agencies in Salt Lake City, Denver,
22:36
Speaker 2: Kansas City, and then a couple coming back through and
22:40
Speaker 2: so I got quite a good response from the work.
22:43
Speaker 2: I had a printed portfolio that I took and showed
22:45
Speaker 2: to some people and then showed them some of the
22:46
Speaker 2: beard photos. And I've already been getting calls a potential
22:51
Speaker 2: shoot for the XFL oh nice and so yeah, So
22:58
Speaker 2: a lot of commercial work coming up. Actually the holidays
23:01
Speaker 2: are usually kind of slow, but this year there's there's
23:06
Speaker 2: a lot going on. So a lot of commercial stuff
23:09
Speaker 2: and catch up from my trip and you know the
23:12
Speaker 2: whole process of getting all of the media requests fulfilled
23:17
Speaker 2: from the Beard competition, because that thing flies around the
23:19
Speaker 2: world like crazy. Oh yeah. Yeah, and then just keep
23:24
Speaker 2: pushing and I got a couple of personal projects in
23:27
Speaker 2: the work, just some portrait stuff around Las Vegas, yep.
23:31
Speaker 2: And uh yeah. Hopefully more of the same and better
23:34
Speaker 2: next year. Absolutely. Man.
23:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, congrats on everything you've done so far. And like
23:39
Speaker 4: I said, I appreciate you, know, your time and everything.
23:42
Speaker 4: One thing I do want to ask you if you
23:43
Speaker 4: got like two more minutes. Sure it's on a couple
23:46
Speaker 4: of different.
23:46
Speaker 1: Social media outlets. What I do is I ask would
23:50
Speaker 1: you rather questions? Would you rather vomit every time someone
23:54
Speaker 1: mentions McDonald's or have to wear a fedora for the
23:57
Speaker 1: rest of your life?
23:58
Speaker 2: Oh man, my kids are eating a lot of well
24:00
Speaker 2: or trying to eat a lot of McDonald's these days. So,
24:04
Speaker 2: but every other photographer in Vegas, whar's a fedora? So
24:07
Speaker 2: it's a conundrum. I guess it's vomiting. Uh and with
24:12
Speaker 2: hearing McDonald's, Yeah, yeah, I think i'd have to pick
24:16
Speaker 2: that one too. Kind of brings about, you know, some
24:18
Speaker 2: uneasiness in my stomach anyway, So you're right.
24:21
Speaker 1: Would you rather go to jail for one year or
24:24
Speaker 1: go to jail with a Rubic's cube and you can't
24:27
Speaker 1: leave until you solve it?
24:29
Speaker 2: Oh? The Rubik's cube, because I can solve them.
24:31
Speaker 4: Oh shit, I'm trying for about a year and a
24:36
Speaker 4: half to figure one out.
24:37
Speaker 2: It's like this it one's got and all this. Don
24:41
Speaker 2: can't do it. I'm still trying, but i'd still be
24:44
Speaker 2: You have time for a tangent story real quick? Yeah? Absolutely?
24:47
Speaker 2: All right? So New Orleans twenty thirteen. I get in
24:51
Speaker 2: line and I'm blanking on his name, but it'll come
24:53
Speaker 2: to me. There's a dude frantically doing a Rubik's cube
24:58
Speaker 2: in line. You know, there's kind of a line to
25:01
Speaker 2: get into where I'm I'm photographing. He's frantically doing a rubiscube.
25:05
Speaker 2: And he comes up on set and he's got the
25:07
Speaker 2: cube in his hands and he looks at me and
25:09
Speaker 2: he goes, you probably want me to pound the nail
25:11
Speaker 2: into my nose, right, And I go, what are you?
25:14
Speaker 2: What could this guy be talking about? And I'm like,
25:17
Speaker 2: of course, I do, yes, do that. And so he
25:19
Speaker 2: gets a nail out of his pocket, puts it in
25:22
Speaker 2: his nose, and I go, count it in with the
25:23
Speaker 2: rubis cube. So I have a photo of him pounding
25:26
Speaker 2: a nail into his nose with the Rubik's cube. And
25:32
Speaker 2: I know his name, but I don't from Justin. Damn it,
25:38
Speaker 2: it's been too long. I haven't seen him in any
25:39
Speaker 2: competition since then. So oh man, anyway, all right, do
25:45
Speaker 2: you think there are more murderers or porn stars in
25:48
Speaker 2: the world? Probably porn stars these days, that's yeah, with
25:53
Speaker 2: all the amateur stuff that's going around. Yeah, yep. In
25:56
Speaker 2: Vegas there's probably a good share of both.
26:00
Speaker 4: I was gonna say in Chicago, shout out to Chicago.
26:03
Speaker 4: If you could pick one person from TV or movies
26:06
Speaker 4: to be your college roommate, who do you pick?
26:09
Speaker 2: M Jeff bridges Hell. You can't go wrong with that.
26:12
Speaker 3: My guy.
26:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a very photogenet and he's the dude, so
26:18
Speaker 2: I mean, seems like an interesting character, a great actor. Absolutely,
26:23
Speaker 2: probably a lot of fun to hang out and drink
26:25
Speaker 2: whiskey with and be right. Alright, last one for you.
26:31
Speaker 1: So you're are granted the ability to time travel, but
26:34
Speaker 1: you can only say ten words to your past self.
26:37
Speaker 2: What would you say? This one gets deep? Yeah, you're
26:40
Speaker 2: getting indeed.
26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, try I try to end on a really deep,
26:43
Speaker 1: you know, positive note, and I would just say, push
26:45
Speaker 1: forward and get your assing year sooner, like I Yeah,
26:49
Speaker 1: I'm forty four now, and I wish, you know, like
26:54
Speaker 1: anybody who's got a couple of years under their belt,
26:56
Speaker 1: I wish I knew now what I did then. And
26:59
Speaker 1: and don't wait for shit to be perfect. Just push
27:01
Speaker 1: out and do it and figure out stuff from there,
27:04
Speaker 1: like just just move, you know absolutely, Yeah.
27:08
Speaker 2: Oh that's great advice son. Any photographers listening, Yeah, gear
27:12
Speaker 2: and just do it. That's exactly people ask me that,
27:16
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what I tell them. Just push, don't
27:19
Speaker 2: have an end product in mind, don't wait for shit
27:21
Speaker 2: to be perfect, just move, do what you're gonna do.
27:25
Speaker 2: Execute on every idea, write down every idea, and just
27:28
Speaker 2: you know, and just tack left or right from there.
27:31
Speaker 2: Don't wait for shit to be perfect, just get it going.
27:34
Speaker 4: Absolutely, what an amazing answer. Well, man, I appreciate your time.
27:39
Speaker 4: I know you're a busy guy. I'm not gonna hold
27:41
Speaker 4: you up anymore. Like I said, I appreciate you doing this.
27:43
Speaker 4: Hopefully we'll stay in touch maybe down the road, see
27:46
Speaker 4: what you're up to. Hopefully I can get out to
27:48
Speaker 4: Vegas and watch a hockey game here soon and meet up.
27:51
Speaker 2: Go nights, go yeah, and on that. Let me know
27:55
Speaker 2: if you come out, I'd be happy to host you. Absolutely,
27:58
Speaker 2: I appreciate that, man, I appreciate you. All right, Man,
28:01
Speaker 2: all right, have a good one. Thanks for having me.
28:03
Speaker 1: What an amazing guy, what an amazing interview. I'm so
28:06
Speaker 1: thankful for Greg for taking the time to do that.
28:08
Speaker 1: So again, thank you very much. Make sure you guys
28:10
Speaker 1: check him out. That's gonna wrap up episode ten. Be
28:13
Speaker 1: on the lookout for episode eleven. If you're interested in
28:16
Speaker 1: being a sponsor on the show, if you're interested in
28:18
Speaker 1: being an interviewee, you got something you want to talk about,
28:20
Speaker 1: you want something that you want. Everybody to know, hit
28:23
Speaker 1: me up mad at beard laws dot com. Make sure
28:25
Speaker 1: to check out beard laws dot com slash podcast to
28:27
Speaker 1: get all the links to check out Greg Anderson and
28:29
Speaker 1: his amazing work, and all the links from previous episodes. Again,
28:33
Speaker 1: thank you for listening, and as always, beard.
28:35
Speaker 3: On ei U.