Behind the Camera: Michael Ballard

Michael Ballard is a wedding photographer, a creative portrait photographer, a studio co-owner (with his partner), a partner to a model, a photo meetup organizer, a workshop leader, a podcaster, and a father to three children. “For the last year, since we got the studio, it's been nonstop camera, camera, camera, camera, camera. Sometimes when we're working, I'm not even taking pictures,” Michael says about his full plate of responsibilities. “When you turn your hobby and passion into your work, sometimes there's this burnout. But for me, it's my key to fun. It's my key to financial stability and also my key to community. It's all about photography and I love it. It doesn't really have any negative effect, you know, you just make time for other things where you can.” And making time for other things, he does. In addition to being a full-service photo studio, Cobalt Studios, the studio Michael co-owns with his partner, Rose, hosts Xbox 360 nights, potlucks, and co-working sessions for creatives. “I don't have coworkers. I don't get adult interaction every day,” explains Michael of the reasoning behind providing other types of events and programming at the studio. “We need that outlet too, so I'm really happy to be able to provide a place where people can come in.”

Fast forward a bit and Michael says the sentiment was still the same. “Later in life, when a camera was put in my hand, I wasn't just clicking everything. I really cared about the quality of what I was photographing and I was very adamant about getting my shot,” recalls Michael. “I love traditional art. I used to paint when I was in high school. I remember in my senior year, it was the first year they had done a photography class. I learned Photoshop in that class. I think that knowing painting helped me figure out layers and composition more.”

“I had a pretty good idea of how to use the camera by the end of high school,” Michael proclaims. “As a teen, I liked shooting abandoned houses and my friends,” he continues, “then after school, I went off to live in my truck. I was traveling and my world got bigger. I would just take my time to get shots I liked. It was the same as at church camp, I just wanted to capture what I saw.” At this point in his life, Michael says that photography was just a hobby for him. “I was very young living in the back of my truck and I had a baby on the way,” Michael explains of the catalyst that made him think photography could potentially become more than a hobby. “I ended up being able to crash in someone's garage/on their couch for a little bit because I knew someone in Washington. But I was two states away from home and I needed money. So besides temp work, I turned to Craigslist and my camera to hustle. As it usually does for us photographers, it turned into a side gig.”

“Finally, there was this really kind couple in Bakersfield, California that wanted me to photograph their wedding. They were very sweet and persuasive,” Michael reminisces. He said that he agreed to photograph their wedding for a hundred bucks. “I was expecting to fail a little bit, honestly, but they wanted me anyway. So I did it for dirt cheap,” Michael explains. “So I went to shoot this wedding in an art gallery. There were lights coming off the wall and facing back at the wall. Not an ideal lighting situation, but they fed me really well. I won't forget how well they fed me,” says Michael. “The wedding is over and I remember sitting with them at a Starbucks and one of the grooms started crying and saying, ‘Thank you, you got my memories and everything I wanted is right here.’ That became why I wanted to keep doing it,” recalls Michael. He says that the trust and this feedback from this couple made him reevaluate his previous stance on photographing weddings. “It was that need and starvation for money at first, but then it built into this side gig and then that turned into something that could maybe be full-time,” Michael says. “I pursued it because I knew that, even though, it's probably more work than working like a nine to five, honestly, I wouldn't be making someone else's money for them like I had been with the jobs I'd worked and I get to make my own schedule. And I get to be with my children most of the time.”

“The wedding industry and photography aren't even the same thing to me. That's a whole different beast,” says Michael of his approach to capturing unique and authentic weddings. “I think the wedding industry is really toxic. If I go to a bridal show, everything, for the most part, is copy-paste. I want to be at the farthest end of the show so that I’m the last impression you get while you're leaving. I take skulls and dark fabrics. Most people are probably like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ But the people my booth appeals to aren’t just people who are dark and spooky, but anyone who feels like they don't want that cookie cutter crap. Not to be rude, but it's obvious that most people are faking their style because I did the same thing early in my career. I wore different colored shirts, I hid my tattoos, and I tried to be what the wedding industry wanted. I realized later that if I just represent myself and who I am, then people might be comfortable representing themselves, whoever they are. And it freshens them up.”

Michael says that having the studio has amplified his sense of community. “I always thought that to have a studio, I would have to build my reputation as an artist and then maybe from there, use that to open a studio,” explains Michael. “So I never really knew if a studio would happen. I thought at most maybe I could scrounge and save up and then get into some sort of cooperative or collaborative studio,” he continues. “Rose was doing modeling at an event at Cobalt and I went. The previous owner, Michaela, was there, and I'm pretty chatty, I guess,” says Michael. “I always figured if I opened a studio, I wanted to open one called Crimson Studios, and then I happened to be at a place called Cobalt Studios,” Michael mentioned the funny happenstance to the then-owner, Michaela Higginson. Michael says he then offered that if Michaela ever wanted to expand the studio or branch out into some sort of duo franchise, he would be seriously interested.

“Our bills are way higher than I've ever had bills before in my life, but it’s 100 percent worth it,” he says. “We work constantly. A lot of our time and focus goes into trying to get bookings in the studio and host workshops. It's a juggle every day with all of these different things we have to do. But then if a Friday comes along when we want to have a community party, we have a space and we get to see what feels like our family coming together and just talking about cameras and their experiences.”

chaotic and it never got edited or put out there,” Michael continues. “First of all, with the podcast the way that it is now, my hat goes off to Armand. He is doing so much work right now when it comes to the editing and whatnot,” Michael says. After the first episode, Michael says he and Armand talked about making the podcast a duo effort to hold each other accountable and simplify it. “With a group or a duo even, it's much easier to hold each other accountable. If I was trying to do it by myself, I'd probably skip a lot more or be like ‘I just can't do it.’ That still happens some weeks if one of us is busy, but usually, we set a day and we set lights up and film it.”

Michael says that the podcast had been something he had mentioned in his circle for a while that he thought would be cool. “We’ve just kind of been trying to grow it. It's great practice to be able to be on camera and talk because I'm pretty awkward. I'm getting a lot better from not thinking about it and just doing it and trying to build that confidence.” While Michael says that the podcast is helping him build confidence, he hopes there’s more for others that comes from it. “Same as with all the other things I've mentioned, I’m just hoping that people have something they could listen to and relate to, even if sometimes it's not the most informational,” Michael says. “That's all it's about to me. People could listen and be like, ‘Oh, I've experienced that, I'm not alone.’ I used to deal with so much stuff by myself and I’d wonder, ‘Is this normal?’ Or ‘Why does this keep happening?’ It’s those little experiences that I hope people can relate to.”

Michael notes that a lot of the gear he currently uses is intentional because of its size or weight. “I've tried to downsize everything. I even have crappy stands because they're lightweight and I already have a huge bag that I carry,” explains Michael. “I have my camera equipment in a camera bag that I wear on my front when I go into a wedding and I have a big army store bag that I stuff all of my lighting gear and my extra batteries in that I wear on my back. I come in looking like a big old Bowser or something. Usually, I'll find a nice safe spot to put them down. A lot of times, if there's a DJ, I ask if I could put my stuff by them to limit the chance of someone sneaking in and stealing stuff. Where I originally started shooting, that was something you really had to look out for. I used to have a 100-400mm lens that went away at a wedding and so I'm a little paranoid now. I haven't had any problems with people trying to scope out my gear in Portland or any of the venues around here.”

“I am a Canon shooter. I love Canon, but I'm not particularly tied to anything. And if I ever changed, I don't think I'm drawn to anything in particular. I have friends that'll banter back and forth about which is better and why. But I've seen some really good stuff coming from Nikon, Fuji, and Sony. There are different aspects of each that I really like. But I'm just used to my Canon, you know. If I switched, maybe I would go to Sony, but I think that's just because I have more people in my ear about Sony.”

“Trial and error. That's it,” says Michael of how he’s learned most of what he knows about photography post that high school class. “I rarely would ever go and look something up unless it was very technical. I would usually try to dissect other photographs and then practice. Digital photography makes that very easy because you can just sit there and screw up all day until you get it. Occasionally, every blue moon, I would go look up something specific because I had an idea in mind, especially with flash later on. Like how do you make strobes look like dimly lit candlelight? So if I had the vision, I would go and try to find answers.”

bring natural light? I soon realized that it's so much better when you can close the door, blackout the space, and fully control your light and what a benefit that was. I want people to understand what we had and we wanted to make the option available for people to learn, especially because we also need clients for the studio. And then some odd months back, we took it outside too and started just doing themed workshops. We organize what's happening with the models, what the theme is, what the location is, and bring everyone together. We put a little ticket price on it as a workshop to make it viable to do these because it takes a lot of time."

We were kind of taken aback by the amount of people that came. Honestly, it was humbling because the one before it, like I said, we had just a couple of friends, literally four adults and my child, and we went to a subway. Then we had that, and it's like, ‘Oh, okay, this is possible.’ It was such a blast and the pictures were like surrealism and monochrome. I took a ladder and buried it into the sand a little bit. We did crazy stuff with the ladder and everyone looked so cool. We took over this whole section of the Oregon coast for a little while. And after that, I think people started paying a little more attention. And the community started growing really fast and I never expected it,” says Michael, “We've been taking time off because of the new baby, but yeah, we're coming up on the eighth Darchive now.”

Michael sees the Darchive meetups and the workshops as part of a larger plan to help create Portland as another creative hub on the West Coast. From his perspective, touring photo workshops largely land in Seattle and Los Angeles, but Michael hopes to add Portland in there as viable stop as well. “Darchive meetups are meant to be and are big, free, collaborative events. We really just want to see the community grow and create art,” Michael states about the workshops and Darchive meet-ups. “I was an artist first. I just want to create art and the money part makes it really hard, but that's life, right? At the end of the day, my favorite takeaway from everything that we do is being able to have a space and a place to have community come together. It's sad that we honestly can't host more because we're so busy all the time. All I want is for people to have a place to feel comfortable or something to listen to to feel understood or a place to go learn!”

See Michael's favorite products here and see more of his photos below:

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