Michael Shane Bowles is a Director of Photography, Writer, and Director based in Oceanside, California. He was born in Rochester, New York in 1975, grew up in Central Florida and attended the Atlanta College of Art. In 2011 Michael relocated from Tampa, Florida to San Diego, California.

Shortly after his arrival, he accepted a position in the marketing department at Blanchard (formerly The Ken Blanchard Companies). He started as an editor and photographer creating marketing videos for the website, conferences and other events. During his tenure at Blanchard, Michael’s contributions consistently grew year after year. He earned multiple awards recognizing his knack for being an “unsung hero” within the organization.

Michael started working closely with the media team and product development. He was determined to increase the production value of Blanchard’s internal and external communications. With his technical and artistic expertise constantly growing, Blanchard was ultimately able to bring much of their high-end narrative production in-house, increasing quality while lowering costs in the process.

As production budgets increased, so did Michael’s responsibility and creative freedom. He began serving as Director of Photography for an ever-expanding number of client facing videos. These included narrative shoots for products like Conversational Capacity, Essential Motivators, SLII and marketing shoots supporting Blanchard’s rebranding intended to reintroduce Blanchard to a new generation of emerging leaders.

While growing professionally at Blanchard, Michael also tirelessly pursued passion projects outside the confines of the office. He’s worked in many different roles within the camera department on numerous independent short films as well as editing and sound design.

Michael feels most at home working as Director of Photography for directors that value his unique eye and peculiar sense of dark humor. In 2023 Michael wrote and directed his first genre short, “The Mad Doctor of the Intercontinental Hotel”, which garnered praise and a few awards during its festival run.

Michael is currently in production on his second film, “Piñata”, a dark comedy about finding your purpose in the world, even if that purpose turns out to be horrifying.

In his spare time, he enjoys kayaking at the break of dawn, reading cosmic horror, hiking and teaching himself Tool songs on the bass guitar he’ll stubbornly refuse to play for anyone.