Mark Lobo Photography – Professional Brisbane Photographers : News

Well, I’m off to go camping in another country with a bunch of strangers from the internet!  Ok, it’s not really as creepy as it sounds. It all started with a self portrait application, submitted to Pictory, to be a part of the second year of Phoot Camp.  It was an amazing opportunity to hang out, collaborate and meet with inspiring creatives and photographers.  So I’m in Los Angeles right now, in a few hours I’ll head out to stay at a mansion with 27 photographers for a weekend of fun.  That’s pretty much all I really know for now, I’ll update in a few days!

Working with creative people, particularly musicians, is always a pleasure.  It often feels more like a collaboration of creative ideas, rather than a strict brief.  I met up with Brisbane singer/songwriter Scott Spark, to discuss his new album and the imagery he wanted to back it.  We talked about a few themes and locations that he felt would suit best.  Eventually, we decided on two locations, both indoor and out.  Here are some of my favourite shots from the shoot.

Scott’s album, “Fail Like You Mean It” is due for release in August.  For a preview, you can check out his stuff here: http://scottspark.bandcamp.com and on iTunes.

Late last year I was the photographer for Brisbane City Council’s bi-annual Homeless Connect, which provides a much needed range of services to the homeless population of Brisbane. Included in the services are medical and legal services as well as covering the most basic of needs through accommodation referrals, clothing and food. Last November, I covered the event in a mostly candid and documentary style, but soon realised that combining it with some ideas from another event we organised last year, Help Portrait, would allow us to give much more to the guests on the day and in a more direct way.

This year, I teamed up with the amazing Lynda Evans and Toby Scott, to shoot, print, laminate and even burn images to disc. We hit the ground running and had no chance to break until it was all over, with people eventually starting to congregate around the booth, checking out their photos and waiting for their turn to have their portrait taken. We shot portraits for about 170 people and gave the equipment, kindly supplied to us by Epson, quite a workout! We met some amazing people and heard some moving stories of how people were going to use their photos, and who they were going to give them to. It seemed like everyone wanted to have their photo taken to share with another friend or loved one that wasn’t there. We heard about people wanting the photos to give to their mothers for Mothers Day, family overseas and a mate on the “inside”, some just wanted portraits of their children or with friends. There was a couple wanting pregnancy portraits and even some people who wanted to have “before and after” haircut shots! When I first thought about bringing a portrait space to Homeless connect I really wasn’t sure whether it would work or be something that was needed, but after seeing the joy that something as simple as getting a nice portrait taken can bring, it really re-enforces my belief in the power of “photography for good” and the impact it has on people.

Many thanks to Toby, Lynda, Epson Australia, Brisbane City Council, Volunteering Queensland, all volunteers and service providers for making this kind of event possible. I’ve shot a few “Help Portrait” inspired events since our first one last year but am hoping to make it a much more frequent and sustainable way to give portraits.  If you know anyone keen to support, through printing supplies or in any other way possible, please let me know!  For more information on Homeless Connect and how to get involved as a volunteer or service provider in the next event in November, please visit:

Brisbane City Council via Homeless Connect
or
Volunteering Queensland

Here are some behind the scenes shots of our portrait space on the day:

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of doing an exhilarating and colourful editorial shoot for Tiger Airways, which had me following biker Mac Swift around the Tweed Valley in Northern New South Wales. I was asked to capture the journey along some of the Valley’s beautiful rain-forests and beaches, which eventually led me to dangerously balancing on the back of a moving Harley, trying to get the cover shot! I’ve included some of the shots below:

Following a few busy months since my last BNE project shoot, I met up with John Davis a guitar repairer based up in Red Hill in Brisbane.  For those unfamiliar with the project, every person selected for the BNE project is chosen by a previous BNE participant.  John Davis was selected as the inspiration of one of my early BNE portraits, Dan from Dan and Dilmah.

I caught up with John a few days before the shoot at his store and spent a few hours chatting and observing, amongst a constant influx of passionate guitar lovers frequenting the store.  One of the things I noticed about John is that when he was working, he was constantly in motion.  Whether it was chatting to three customers at once or restringing a guitar, the man is always on the move!  I came back a few days later and despite having scheduled the shoot after hours to avoid interruptions, John was still juggling customers and fixing guitars into the night.  This passion for his work, people, and guitars is something I really wanted to capture with this shoot.

Early this month, Brisbane hosted it’s very own community run TED event or “TEDx“.   It was one of the most inspiring local events I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of.  Modeled after the Long beach based annual TED conferences, the day included talks from a diverse range of prolific thinkers and doers.  Co-hosted and organised by Paul Fairweather and Carl Lindgren, with the help of a number of sponsors and volunteers, the day was buzzing with inspired conversation and the ’spirit’ of TED.  As a photographic sponsor, I had the honour of shooting some inspiring speakers and captured some great moments in the lead up to the event.  A massive thanks and congrats to the organisers and everyone involved.  Here are some of my favourite shots from TEDxBrisbane.  More images can be found on the TEDxBrisbane flickr page .

And finally, I’d like to share the first TED talk that introduced me to these “ideas worth spreading”, soon after they started releasing the TED talks online.  It was Jeff Han’s presentation on multi-touch technology.  From touch pads on laptops to the Apple iPad, it’s crazy how within 5 years of this talk, it has become so common place.  As Jeff says, this technology will “Change the way we interact with machines from this point on”, and it has.

I recently did a shoot for Hailey Calvert, an incredibly talented Brisbane singer-songwriter.  We set out to shoot a few different locations based on some of Hailey’s inspirations and tell the story of her and her music.  You can check out some of Hailey’s music here: myspace.com/haileycalvert.
Here are a few of my favourite shots:

Escaping the Australian summer, I was back in Tokyo at the end of 2009. I spent my days shooting, eating, wandering and embracing the Japanese winter weather.  Thought I’d share a few shots and videos from the trip.

Over 8,000 photographers and volunteers in 42 countries held Help Portrait events on the 12th of December this year.  Among those 715 locations which held the photo shoots, 2 were organised for Brisbane.  I worked with a group of amazing Brisbane photographers along with the Starlight foundation to provide sick children and their families with beautifully printed and framed portraits.

The day was eye opening, challenging and exceptional, with just 5 photographers and 3 starlight volunteers, we set up in 2 spaces at the hospital and also visited those unable to come to us.  There were a few issues with printing, but we still achieved our main goal, which was to give the kids and their families beautiful portraits and a fun experience through photography.  The children were thrilled to be a part of a photo shoot and the grateful looks on the faces of their parents told a story in itself.

I’d like to thank the photographers, family, friends, and everyone who helped and showed support, whether it was through donations or just spreading the word through twitter, you made the day amazing for some very needy children and their families. With our fund raising efforts, we ended up raising over $900 to cover costs and the remainder was donated directly to the Starlight Foundation.

I’d also like to mention the great efforts of another group of fine photographers who made another Help Portrait happen for Vital Connection.  With all the interest shown through the Brisbane Help Portrait page and emails received, I have no doubt Help Portrait in Brisbane will only be getting bigger and more frequent.  We’d be interested in getting the ball rolling on the next help portrait, so if you have any ideas for future events, as well as potential suppliers, please let me know.  I’d really like to see a lot of small groups of photographers getting out there, giving portraits, and doing their thing!

Thanks again!

Time lapse video from one of the Help Portrait locations:

Whether it be through story telling, print donations for art auctions or charity event coverage, there are quite a few ways a photographer can dedicate their time and skills towards a greater good.  Upon hearing about Help Portrait through photographer Elleni Toumpas, along with Brisbane photographers Adam West, Toby Scott and Ian Henderson, we decided to discover new and more direct ways to give, rather than just “take” pictures.  In major cities around the world, photographers are coming together to donate their time, equipment and expertise to giving to those less fortunate as a part of the Help Portrait movement.  Although Help Portrait shoots will be happening across the globe on December 12 this year, we have all agreed and are planning towards carrying out these shoots on a more regular basis.

In support of hospitalised and seriously ill children,  Help Portrait Brisbane will be working with the Starlight Children’s Foundation to take portraits with the kids and their families and give them professional prints from the day.

Want to help out?

Chip In!

While our time and equipment are all covered, we still need to raise the money to give prints to the children and families of Starlight!  So we are aiming to raise $500 to give them something nice to keep.  If you can spare just $5-10, or even more to help us reach our goal it would be greatly appreciated. You can use the widget above to donate, or visit the Help Portrait ChipIn page here: http://helpportrait.chipin.com/help-portrait-brisbane

Get Involved!

While we’ve reached the number of photographers needed to help the children at the Starlight Foundation, there are still so many more people out there that could do with a portrait to brighten their day!  So if you are a photographer and want to take part in Help Portrait this year, it’s not too late!  Check out the Help Portrait website, on how to get involved and get something started.  The local Brisbane site can be found here: http://community.help-portrait.com/group/brisbane .  There are still so many people who want to get involved, team up and make something amazing happen!

For more info on the Starlight Foundation go to: http://www.starlight.org.au/

Some videos explaining the Help Portrait Concept: