20 Under 40: Mason finds passion in photography
Published 1:38 pm Thursday, July 20, 2017
Ashley and Weston Mason met at the University of Mobile, and the two later got married and moved to Selma where Weston is from.
Since then, she has become involved in many aspects of the city, making Selma her home.
“My husband is from here, so after we got married, we both moved back up here,” Mason said. “I started working at the Chamber of Commerce as the tourism director, and then Peak Insurance hired me almost two years ago.”
Besides her full-time job, Ashley focuses on her photography business, Ashley Brooke Photography which she started while raising money for a mission trip.
“I was trying to raise money for a mission trip, and I got the idea from another photographer,” Mason said. “I did a lot of sessions leading up to the mission trip, and I raised all the money that I needed to go to Belize. That was my first time taking pictures, and I just loved it.”
Since then, Mason has built up her business and has even made lifelong friends through her passion.
“Whenever I moved to Selma, I did not know anybody,” she said. “I think that photography has been an outlet for me to meet people in the area and I’ve become good friends with a lot of people through photography, not only clients but other photographers.”
Besides photography, Mason is involved in the Selma Charity League, is a co-leader for the Selma chapter of the Rising Tide Society, a volunteer with All In Sports Outreach, a member of the Selma Network, a member of the Selma and Dallas County Leadership Class XXII, and she is a member at Elkdale Baptist Church.
Ashley said she loves adventure, and recently went skydiving in Hawaii.
“I love to travel,” Ashley said. “I love going new places and seeing different cultures and seeing what the world has to offer.”
But her passion is photography.
“I was an art minor, so I loved painting and drawing and doing different things, and the photos gave me more of an instant gratification, so I really liked that,” Ashley said.
Ashley serves as the marketing director at Peak Insurance.
“In insurance, it’s like a dual role. I do true marketing where I’m advertising the business, but I also work on all the new business that come in for commercial lines, and I market the customer to the underwriter so that we can get them a policy,” Ashley said. “Being able to create an ad or something that makes the agency look good is really cool to me.”