Interview by Devin Colon

What’s up dude? Let’s start with your name, age, and where you grew up.

Taylor Ballard, 28 years old, and I grew up in Edmonds, WA, a little suburb thirty minutes north of Seattle.

No shortage of skateparks out there. What was growing up in that scene like?

Growing up in the greater Seattle area had its ups and downs with the constant rain but for the most part was really cool. I grew up with a pretty small prefab park as my local but by the time I got my license, I started getting out to the better parks more consistently. In 2016/2017 a bunch of indoor ramps of all different sizes started popping up so I started getting into skating vert, which is what I mainly skate today.

How did shooting photos come into play?

I’d say I always had a little bit of interest in shooting photos. I borrowed a camera and took a photo class my first quarter of college when I was 17 but the teacher wasn’t down with me shooting anything skate related; so I dropped the class and didn’t find my way back to it until I was 21. I had to have two knee surgeries and two foot surgeries over the course of about 5 years; I still skated as much as I could during all of that but my body just wasn’t 100% for a long time. I picked up a camera in the midst of all that, I got really into shooting film and about a year into that got a digital camera and started learning how to shoot skate photos.

How soon after that were you starting to be approached to shoot projects and events?

It took a few years for me to really start getting the hang of things. 2016-2018 I was skating Marginal Way a lot and taking some darkroom classes at school. I shot a ton of film and skate photos at Marginal over the course of about two years and put together my first zine. I learned a lot those first few years but I’d say it wasn’t really till the end of 2018 that I was consistently shooting photos that I would be happy with today. Summer of 2018 I got hit up to shoot my first event and started to get photos run in some magazines here and there. In 2019 things started to take off a little more for me. Got out to a bunch of fun events, finished school, and put together a few more fun little zine projects.

You’ve put out a bunch of solo projects. Did you get a good response from those?

Yeah, I love putting together projects like that. I try to do something of that nature every other year or so. All the projects have gone really well so far. My most recent one went way better than I could have expected. I had a release party at Marriage Skate Shop in LA and probably had about 100 people come through. Broke even with printing costs in about two weeks and everyone seemed to love the zine.

How did the relationship with Marriage unfold leading up to the release party?

I had been into Marriage once or twice, it’s in a really great location in Echo Park not far from where I’m living right now. In November of last year, I was putting the finishing touches on my zine and was looking for a place to have a release party. I went out for a chill session in DTLA with some of the Baker/Deathwish guys and they introduced me to Ronnie who owns Marriage. I started chatting with him about doing something for the zine at the shop and he was down. Ronnie rules and the shop is so dope, be sure to stop by if you’re in the area.

You’ve been hustling since you got down to Los Angeles. How has the job hunt been going?

Yea finding a decent job has been tough. I was on unemployment for awhile when I first came out here cause I lost my job at the beginning of the pandemic. That ended in September of 2021 so I stated doing DoorDash. I had some major car troubles last year, then tore my ACL skating flat ground and couldn’t work for awhile which set me back quite a bit. I was looking for jobs online heavily for like 2 months while I was recovering from surgery but haven’t been looking as much lately. I do okay with photo stuff but right now there’s no way I could fully support myself just from that. I’m sure something cool will come up eventually though. I have a lot of freedom with my schedule right now which is great but I’d really like to have a little more financial stability; just not willing to sign up for a full time job that’s not gonna push me in a good direction or makes me unhappy.

Whose van are you in right now? What’s the itinerary looking like?

I’m in the Lakai van at the moment. We are skating around Dallas, TX for the next week or so trying to stack some clips for the new video.

What setup are you shooting with?

I shoot with a Sony a9 for digital and use a handful of Godox strobes. I shoot a lot of film as well and use a Leica M6 for the most part. I’ve got a few fun point and shoots I use here and there and a few medium format cameras but they are both broken right now. Would love to get some more medium format going again soon.

Are you still developing your own film?

Not since a little before I moved to LA. My scanner started having a lot of issues and most my scans started looking really bad, I also started shooting a lot more color, that process is a bit more complicated to do at home. From 2016-2019 I was shooting mostly black and white, processing everything at home and making darkroom prints at school. I really miss making prints, that was always my favorite part of the whole process. Kinda lost my motivation a bit when I finished school and didn’t have access to a darkroom anymore. The second I have the space though I’m gonna get that going again. There were days I’d spend 6-7 hours processing and printing, it’s therapeutic in a way.

Would you recommend school to a young aspiring skate photographer or do you think it’s possible to just bypass all that?

I think classes can for sure help with learning basic camera stuff, but I really don’t think they are necessary. Everything you need to know is online. I only ever took one entry level digital photography class and most of what I learned over the years I taught myself and just came from trial and error. Shooting film helped me learn a lot about how cameras work and taking film classes was super fun and helped me a lot mainly because I had access to a darkroom. I feel like if you’ve skated for most of your life like I have, and grown up watching videos and looking at magazines, you already have a good idea of how things should look. You just have to learn how your camera and lights work and some other basic photographic principles. Shooting skating isn’t easy, it requires you to think fast and no matter how good you get you’re still gonna blow it every now and again. The learning process also is so similar to learning how to skate, it’s challenging and to get good at it you gotta love it.

It seems like the Seattle scene has so many talented skateboarders. Do you think that kept you motivated to progress?

It really did! We always had a good amount of fun events going on and a lot of indoor ramps. Some of my favorite photos I’ve shot to this day are from late 2018 till the end of 2019 of my friends Keenan Witte, Jesse Lindloff, and Nolan Johnson at all the ramps and parks around Seattle. I miss skating and shooting up there a lot these days. I was planning on spending a month or so there last summer but plans changed when I got hurt. Hoping to make the drive up this summer when my knee is feeling good again.

I’m sure there were plenty of photo ops/learning opportunities in Chile as well. How was all your time down there?

Yeah man Santiago is my home away from home. I’ve been traveling out there every other year or so since I was 16. I feel a lot more at home out there than I do in LA to be honest. In 2017 I started to get a little more connected to the scene out there. I met my good friend Amaru Maturana on a short trip in 2015 and through him, I met most everyone else I know out there. The scene is amazing and there are so many spots and amazing skaters. There are whole cities up north too that no one has touched except for some of the Chileans. My friend Nicolas Garay is one of the main filmers out there and does a magazine every year called Fuera De Foco. I try to help him out with stuff whenever I can. I’ve shot a handful of other small things for some other magazines out there and got to help with a little Adidas project in 2020.

I was even planning on moving there after I graduated. I planned a three month long trip from February till May of 2020. I ended up going to Brazil for a few days mid March and that’s when Covid shut the world down. I tried to fly back to Santiago but was told I wouldn’t be allowed back in. I ended up having to leave a bunch of my stuff behind including all the film I shot cause I had to fly back to Seattle from Florianopolis. I still have a bunch of photos from that trip I never did anything with. Crazy times!

What’s your favorite photo you’ve ever gotten?

Man, that’s a tough one! I wouldn’t say I have one favorite, and most of the time I’ll end up really stoked on a photo because of the story behind it more so than the photo itself. Simon Bannerot is one of my favorite skaters and we shot a photo on this gap to rail just a few minutes from where I grew up in April of 2020. There’s always been something special to me about shooting a skate photo around where I grew up. The photo ended up being a Lakai catalog poster but the fact that Simon and I got to shoot a photo in my hometown makes that one extra special.

Another one that comes to mind is one of the first photos I shot with Zane Timpson. The day I got to LA I hit up my friend Nick Hanson. He invited me out on a session with Zane. We shot a photo of a no-comply crail switch crook on this bank to Jersey barrier. The trick ended up working surprisingly well for a photo. Looking back at that photo brings back so many good memories of my first days in California and as hard as it is that Zane isn’t with us anymore it makes me so happy that our paths crossed and we got to share some amazing times together.

One more that stands out is Breana Geering’s crook fakie that ended up being a Thrasher cover. Nothing about that photo was planned. I went out to San Bernardino with Shane Auckland and a bunch of other homies. We had a big crew that day. Breana was on that session and someone suggested we go check out this roof spot after we were done skating the brick quarter pipe. The trick was a bit of a battle but with a little persistence and encouragement, Breana rolled away. I ran into Pedro Delfino the next day and showed him the photo, he quickly told me I should send it to Burnett and that they should give Breana a cover. I sent it the next day but felt kinda bad because I didn’t ask Breana what she wanted to do with the photo first. It ended up working out great and a few months later we got a crazy surprise.

How long did it take you to fully grasp camera settings and how they all intertwine? Was there something that helped you understand it better? I’ve tried so many times to remember but I need to think so hard about it whenever I’m shooting on a manual film camera.

When I first started shooting film I’m pretty sure I was shooting mainly in aperture priority mode which made things really easy because you just have to think about setting your aperture the way you want and the camera sets the shutter for you. Within six months or so I started shooting full manual. I remember it being challenging at first but just like most anything if you do it enough, and consistently, eventually it starts to feel natural. I will say though it took me a lot longer to develop a good eye for how photos should look and be edited than it did for me to learn how camera settings work.

Any closing thoughts on photography? Advice to the people wanting to get into it?

I just wanna say thank you to everyone who has been a part of my life and helped me find my way these last few years. I’m so stoked to be here and feel so blessed to be a part of something so special that has allowed me to cross paths with so many amazing people. To anyone getting into shooting skating always remember it’s a process, just like skating it’s not something you get good at overnight. Shoot your friends, study other people’s work, barge events, and use them as a way to network and get to know people. Always remember it’s just skateboarding, it’s not that serious, keep it mellow and let the photos do the talking.