Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Payne. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Asking friends and family to support my business has been essential to me on this journey. The area I chose to use as the launch pad for taking photography from a hobby to a business is a small but tight-knit one. Competitive paintball whether on a regional or national level is so interconnected that once you’ve been present in it for a significant amount of time you develop an unbelievable amount of friendships, acquaintances and contacts. Spend over a decade collectively involved like I and you end up realizing that the majority of people you call your friends come from time spent at these events and in preparation for them. When I decided to shape this journey into something resembling a business friends and family where the first ones I reached out to and told about my decision. Not in the sense of asking for their money or even to consider my services, I was just excited to finally make that leap and even believe that photography was something that could generate income. The support I initially and continue to receive is unbelievable.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Draugr Media was started with the mission of capturing life through photography and video. To immortalize the moments that make life more than just an existence but truly about the journey along the way, moments of success and appreciation but also defeat and sadness. With an initial focus in competitive paintball but ever expanding to provide services in various other subjects and disciplines.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The main goal driving my journey is to capture the moments and sights that make life more than just existing. Life can speed by us at insane speeds and we all need something that makes us slow down and appreciate it, see it for all that it really is. See the moments of happiness, defeat, sadness, absolute wonder and even the moments that shake our foundation. Photography allows me to really see all of these moments, to slow the world down and allow myself to truly experience life. Being able to capture those moments feels almost like magic. You’ve managed in fractions of a second create a photograph that has the power to move people, remind them of a moment in time, bring back the emotions they had in that moment be them good or bad, even transport them to a place or experience they have never been to themselves. If even one person sees a photograph I’ve captured and feels that appreciation for life and it’s moments I have succeeded. I have shown them that, if even in just that one moment, to slow down and take it all in good or bad is essential.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My entire journey has been one of resilience and it will continue to be for as long as I stay on this path. The challenges faced along the way are the reason for the journey. If I had to pick a particular assignment to illustrate this it would have to be the NXL (National X-Ball League) event held in Chicago during 2022. I came into the event with an embarrassingly short list of paid clients and the very real possibility of losing money. To add even more challenge I was playing with an iconic and truly great organization for the event as well. Arriving to the event I began to think I had stretched myself to thin, but I couldn’t let this stop me from providing the quality work that I had become know for. Day one of the event began in the typical fashion of reconnecting with friends from far and wide who had traveled to the event. Meeting the few teams that had hired me for the event to establish the emotion and story they wanted me to capture. I put my head down and got to work capturing some truly great photos that first day. Ending the day with a sigh of relief and the typical activities of dumping memory cards and charging camera batteries back at the hotel.
Day two began in the darkness as overnight mother nature had decided to have her way with the city. The power at the hotel I was staying had gone out at some point in the night, something that I’d normally notice and not be surprised to wake up too, but after more than twelve hours of shooting at the event the day before I had slept right through it. Waking up to realize less than half of my camera batteries had actually charged through the night I knew it was just the start of the days challenges. As I drove to the venue the event was being held at charging batteries in the car along the way it continued to rain with no sign of stopping. Photographing anything in the rain is a challenge and there are a number of photographers that just avoid it all together. Something that wasn’t possible in my circumstance. This sport is not one stopped by any weather just short of hurricane/tropical storm levels and if the teams that had hired me where playing I was photographing them. That’s the promise I had made to them. To top it off I was also playing that same morning and was expected to perform no matter the circumstances. So on the rain cover went and the games began. The rain wouldn’t last all day but long enough to claim one of my cameras and a lens as tribute. I had fulfilled my promise to my paid teams as well as the team I was playing with for the event. Capturing another day full of photographs as well as securing the teams spot in the finals for day three of the event. As the day drew to a close I visited the various vendors which had graciously allowed me to store my equipment and charge my camera batteries. Reminding me full well how great the community of this sport is, finally making it back to the hotel well after sun set.
Day three of the event only promised more rain in the afternoon and I had managed to secure two more teams for photo coverage. So the day began with my back up camera and the only manual focus lens I even remotely trusted to get the job done. A challenge considering the fast pace of the game and subjects that rarely sit still longer then a few seconds. But this was something I had practiced for knowing full well equipment failures are bound to happen and that couldn’t be an excuse for not fulfilling the promises I made to the teams. The morning would crawl by as I captured some of my favorite photos of the sport to date. I was exhausted and the day was far from over. As I meet the team I was playing with for the event dragging both my gear to play as well as my camera gear I knew there wasn’t time to slow down or lose focus. The match wouldn’t go our way, we would end up taking second place for the event. Not a colossal failure but not the result we wanted by any means. As I began to haul everything back to my car with the normal goodbyes and until next times it began to settle on me that this event had been one to remember. Overcoming everything that had been thrown at me and persevering both professionally and personally through it all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.draugrmedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draugr_media
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DraugrMedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DraugrMedia

Image Credits
Draugr Media