Earlier in the month, I photographed friend and freelance journalist, Andrew McMillen with his seven year long, well nurtured head of dreadlocks. I did a simple portrait of him in the lead up to shaving them off in support of the Leukaemia Foundation and I also photographed him after a very close cutthroat razor shave for a “before and after” series. Here are a few images from the shoot. I can hardly recognise him anymore.
You can read his thoughts on his experience with dreads and hair as a social object, here.
I worked with hair dresser, Jules Tognini of AKA Togninis, on a series of looks for Hair Expo Australia in June last year. Here are some of the final images from the shoot. Editing by the awesomely talented Lynda Evans of Designedly.
I worked with the great team at Big Fish once again to produce a series of images for their client, Go Health. It was a fun shoot which involved a lot of moving of excercise equipment, taking over the spin room on location. I’m really happy with the final artwork and the use of colour is delicious. Here are a few of the images from the shoot:
Photographically, it’s been a great year for me, both personally and professionally. I worked with some amazing people, visited some incredible places and photographed some beautiful things. In no particular order, here are 11 images from my 2011.
I was invited back to attendPhoot Camp 2011 which saw 30 photographers road tripping from all around the United States towards Marfa, Texas. This was from a stop at the beautiful White Sands, New Mexico. Neil Berrett puts his body on the line for the sake of photography. Thanks Neil!
I photographed (and devoured) some of the most delicious dishes from Marriott Brisbane’s new restaurant, Motion bar and Grill. Delicious.
The saying “The best camera is the one that’s with you.” was put to the test, leaving my “big camera” at home and challenging myself with just my iPhone. As a result, I fell in love with Instagram.
This was one of the coolest projects I got to work on this year for Made In The Now. Not only did I get to design and shootthe image for the shirt, but I was also lucky enough to be involved in it’s earlier stages with the t-shirt and model photography.
A huge mile stone for me was launching Von Vintage and it’s online store. It was a side passion project that had me shooting on film again and intentionally slowing down my photographic process. I had some great fun exhibiting this work.
I got involved with photographing a poster for Rise, a fundraiser for the Brisbane flood recovery efforts. I love the way it turned out and was happy to hear that the event raised over $10,000 for The Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal.
One of my favourite shots that came from my visit to Japan was from Yamanakako, an area near Mt. Fuji where we used to visit every summer. The crisp air greeted me with a flood of incredible memories from my childhood.
I was invited to climb Brisbane’s Story Bridge and bring my camera gear with me, giving me a refreshing and almost calming perspective of the city.
I felt the immense positivity that surrounded the “Together Brisbane” Campaign and was thrilled to see images that I shot for the campaign on billboards, bus shelters and even on the ground.
I shot some of my favourite photos at White Sands, this is the last photograph I shot there. It was a great afternoon. Cody had just captured a lightning strike on his instax, Nate Bolt started a really fun series and Neil did some epic dune jumping. It was no doubt one of the most beautiful highlights of the road trip.
And lucky last is a 3D image of Daniel Seung Lee, from a project I started called “Ghetto Stereo“. Using two disposable cameras side by side, I created a “Ghetto” stereoscopic 3D camera. I’m currently working on a new series using a “quadra lens” system.
Have a safe silly season everyone, and I hope to hear from you in the New Year!
Over the last few months, I’ve been working with Brand Development Agency, Underbrand on the photography for the new restaurant, Motion Bar and Grill at The Marriott, Brisbane. I had previously worked with Underbrand on projects such as the photography for Jam Jar and as always, was a pleasure to work with a team of highly motivated visual perfectionists!
Here are a few of the final images and artwork that resulted from the shoot. As a lover of nice wood grain, I’m thrilled that we were able to tie all the shots together with such a nice brown tone and texture. You can see more of my shots on the Motion Bar and Grill website.
Over two years ago, I found an old Brownie box camera which sparked the idea to create an ongoing series of work. I decided that I wanted to preserve inspiring vintage design and aesthetics by shooting a timeless series, all shot on vintage film cameras. Since then, I’ve spent hours keeping an eye out for beautiful, once loved keepsakes to capture forever. A countless number of rolls of film ran through cameras that barely worked, and film got fogged in X-ray machines, but I eventually landed with my true vintage camera love, the Hasselblad, which I used to shoot this series. Finally, this weekend I’m putting the Von Vintage series up on the walls of Urban Grind, a great coffee shop that also hosted my previous BNE project series. The coffee is the best, and so is the company so head in there and check out the prints! I’ll be heading in there a few times throughout the next few weeks so if you are keen for a coffee and a chat, just email me and we’ll tee it up!
The Details:
Urban Grind, 121 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington November 27th until December 23rd 2011
v@vonvintage.com
Instagram is an iPhone app that seems to have divided a lot of photographers. It’s a social application, that allows users to instantly share their images across different digital platforms, as well as within the vast community of Instagram users itself. Some love it for it’s faux vintage filters, and others hate it for exactly that same reason.
I personally love that it encourages me to look deeper into the aesthetics of the everyday things that surround me, an invaluable exercise for photographers. I also love that using the photo’s geolocation data, I can see what others have previously photographed, and experience someone else’s perspective of the same location that I stand.
As a professional photographer, somewhat addicted to this form of “iPhoneography” I was recently interviewed in the weekend paper about my view on this style of photography. You can find me on Instagram under the name “@MarkLobo” and “@VonVintage“.
For those interested in iPhonography, be sure to check out 1197.is this weekend. It’s the first ever mobile and iPhone photography conference and can be streamed online.
Fulfilling a brief within 4 hours of receiving it is rarely something I have to do, but that’s exactly what a new designer goes through every day on Made In The Now. This morning, I was that designer…well photographer. The idea behind Made In The Now, is to challenge a new designer with a brief based on a news article written that day, voted in by the public. With that article in mind, the designer creates a limited edition T-shirt, which is only available for 24 hours. As a photographer, I wanted to shoot something specific and not have to rely on a back catalog. Luckily, the article voted in didn’t have me struggling as much as it would for some of it’s candidates! I was to photograph and design a shirt based on an article about animals and their relationship with increasing brain activity. This is what I came up with. The shirt is only available for 24 hours, so if you want it, get in quick! http://www.madeinthenow.com/shirt/51.html:
I was actually also the photographer for these t-shirt models too…so meta.
In a year where Brisbane has faced some of it’s most challenging of times, working on a positive campaign promoting the city and encouraging people to make it a better place was a great experience. I shot a range of images from all around Brisbane for the Together Brisbane project, which can now be seen around the city on Billboards, buses, bus stops and the Together Brisbane website among other places. Now, with the Brisbane Festival coming up, user submitted images are being rolled out throughout the city. I can’t be more excited about the use of photography to tell the stories of the people of Brisbane, something I’ve been focused on through my own project, The BNE Project. Many thanks to the great team from Big Fish who I worked with on the campaign and to David Byrne who photographed the above image.
Here are a few images of the work I’ve shot for the campaign:
Please excuse quality of the iphone shots… “The best camera is the one on you.” right?
And the accompanying TVC in which I was working along side on the project:
Earlier in the month, I worked with Made In The Now, a JM-Labs venture that looks to turn current events into awesome T-shirt designs. With a new designer and relevant creation every 24 hours, it’s an exciting and fresh approach to limited edition shirts. Check out the site (and my photos) at madeinthenow.com
I spent my high school years on the Sunshine Coast, living in the coastal town of Noosa before moving inland to the quiet town of Eumundi, most well known for it’s weekly markets. So it was with great pleasure that I worked on my latest assignment with Tiger Airways’ inflight magazine, which was also my third cover for them. The photography for the piece focused on the Sunshine Coast art trail and was to feature the work of local artists, particularly Katz, a local body painter. Carrying a light weight portable lighting kit, we braved the wet weather and mosquitoes off the trail to shoot the works. This is one of my favourite shots from the shoot as well as the image selected for the cover!
I was recently invited up to climb the story bridge by fellow photography lover and Story Bridge Climb CEO, Paul Lewin. I gladly accepted and was keen to experiment a bit and see what would go in to shooting a portrait at the top of the bridge. There were quite a few restrictions on what gear I could take up there, but was still able to manage a few lenses, speedlights as well as a small customised diffuser for the flashes.
I chose to shoot at sunset but found the harsh silhouetting of the sun stetting behind Brisbane city was a bit too much for a portrait and low powered lighting. i can’t wait to see what it’s like up there at sunrise! Here are a few snaps from the afternoon. Many thanks to Brisbane Photographer, Toby Scott who came and helped out with the shoot!
One of the biggest highlights of last year was no doubt the opportunity to head over to Los Angeles to meet and hang out with some inspiring, creative minds at Phootcamp. This year, I’m doing it all again in Marfa, Texas! As part of the application process, we had to shoot a self portrait (see last year’s here). The portrait was inspired by everything I learned at last year’s camp and included a few recurring themes from otherpeople’sphotos! The shirt I’m wearing is inspired by this “Nate Bolt!” shirt by Steph Goralnick. The portrait has also been featured along with the many other talented Phoot Camp attendees here on Pictory, an always beautiful and inspiring website created by Phootcamp founder, Laura Miner. I can’t wait to meet all the new faces and really dig deep into getting creative with such an awesome bunch of people!
Here’s a timelapse video of the creation of the shot! It was all shot with speedlights, for a higher sync speed and water resistance! Thanks to Elleni, Toby and Michael for all their help!
Here are a few of my shots from Phoot Camp last year:
I recently worked with branding agency, Underbrand on a photo shoot for Jam Jar, a new restaurant/bar in West End, Brisbane. With it’s lane way inspired, stencil and street art covered walls and Queenslander inspired seating, it was an inspiring space to work out of. Their menu looked pretty delicious, I don’t think I’ve salivated more on a shoot than I did when working on their food photography. With the owners being a mother-son duo, it was a fun portrait shoot, capturing the intimate energy and genuine moments that emerged as the two played off of one another. One of the best things about working with Jam Jar was the commissioned artwork that they asked me to work on. Covering a 5 meter wide space behind the bar, it definitely was a first for me see my photography turned into a wallpaper on such a large scale. So go check out my one photo exhibition on the wall of Jam Jar and have a tasty meal or drink while you’re at it!
Earlier in the year, I worked on an editorial piece for Tiger Airways’ in flight magazine, Tiger Tales. I was asked to capture a different side of Brisbane, focusing more on the local culture rather than it’s “touristy” surrounds. The story was structured around 9 streets in Brisbane and the unique offerings of each of them. As a local photographer, I was in my element when it came to capturing some of the city’s attractions. In addition, I was to capture some young Brisbanites for the cover (above). It was a really enjoyable shoot and gave me the excuse to visit some of my favourite cafes.
If you’re traveling on Tiger Airways before the end of April, be sure to pick up a copy. This was my second cover for Tiger Tales, with one more cover on the way. My first shoot with them had me standing on the back of a moving Harley, trying to get the cover shot! You can read more about it here.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I was interviewed in the last issue of Capture Magazine. It was a small 2 part piece on social media and how it can be used by photographers. The follow-up issue has hit the shelves, where I say a few more words about Creative Commons licensing and most importantly, have illustrated it with some of my favourite images! The piece looks at a number of photographers’ views on online copyright and is quite an interesting read, touching on protecting your photographic rights online.
I was recently interviewed for an article in Capture Magazine, an Australian publication for professional photographers. I talk about keeping your social networks fun, finding inspiration and connecting with photographers from around the world. They also published some of my favourite portraits for the piece.
It’s interesting to see how social networks have changed the way I work and seek inspiration in recent years, particularly through my involvement on Flickr, Twitter and Facebook. I can’t wait to see what will come next.
I recently worked on a fun little promo for a great fundraising event in support of those recently affected by the flooding in Queensland. If you live in Australia, or perhaps even if you don’t, you’d probably know about the devastating flooding that has just swept through much of the states of Queensland and Victoria.
It all came and left so suddenly, but a full recovery is looking like it will take months. Since the waters receded, we’ve seen amazing community efforts, from thousands of volunteers, to donations and services in all professional fields. In response to the floods, friends from Josephmark, Map Magazine and Big Fish are doing their part and have teamed up to organise a “Flood Party to end all Flood Parties”, a fundraiser to support the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal, for those most affected by the floods. I love these guys and the work that they do, so it was a real honour to be asked to shoot their event promo image:
So if you’re keen for a good night out, and want to help out, come along to Rise, which will be held at Laruche. Entry is free but you’ll need to register your attendance on Facebook at RISE – The flood party to end all flood parties or by emailing: rise@bigfish.com All proceeds from orders from the “Flood” menu will go directly to the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal.
If you can’t make it to the event, but still want to help out, you can make a donation directly: here. I live on one of the roads where the flooding occurred here in Brisbane, and was lucky enough to not have been severely affected like many of my neighbours.
Here are a few photos I took of my local shops and the water as they started to recede. My photos only tell a small, perhaps more lighthearted part of what happened and the real stories came from the following days of cleanup, drenched in contaminated mud, helping to rip out entire residences and businesses, to which I didn’t feel right bringing my camera along to.
Perhaps it’s a few days late, but here are some images from my top 10 shoots of 2010! It was an incredible year.
In no particular order…
Japan – Momiji
I head back to Tokyo once or twice a year and most often in the winter time. At this time of the year, the Momiji leaves (Japanese maple) dominate the treeline and cover the ground in parks. I really love the way these leaves look against a nice bokeh.
Phoot Camp – Dan Busta
I traveled to New York, Boston and Los Angeles earlier in the year where I met some of the most inspiring and creative people and took part in Phoot Camp, where I shot this portrait.
Michael Hill Jeweller – Jewellery Photography
To be able to shoot for Michael Hill‘s catalog was a great experience. Working against an impressive existing collection, I learnt a few new tricks of the trade when it comes to this type of product photography. It’s probably some of the best product work I’ve done to date.
TEDxBrisbane – Event Photography
Modeled after the US based annual TED conferences, TEDxBrisbane was an Independently organised TED event. The day included talks from a diverse range of prolific thinkers and doers. I shot all the TEDx events held in Brisbane in 2010 and have been truly inspired by them all.
Green Heart – Campaign and Editorial Photography
I worked on an image library for Green Heart, an environmental sustainability program in Brisbane, with the focus on creating carbon-neutral city by 2026. It was great to work with and meet so many inspiring people dedicated to building a better and greener city to live in.
Philippines – Bohol Island
It was a busy time for me in January. I had just come back from a freezing winter in Tokyo, returning to spend a few hot days in a Brisbane summer. Before I had a chance to settle back in, I was off to shoot a wedding in an uncomfortably humid Philippines. With all the travel, changes in climate, and stress of working in a new environment, just watching the warm rain roll in took me to my happy place. With good music playing on my headphones, a big wedding shoot behind me, and big drops of warm rain splashing off my feet, it was the perfect way to unwind and enjoy the rest of my stay.
Tiger Airways – Cover shot and Editorial Photography
I had the pleasure of working on 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! Definitely one of the most thrilling shoots of the year.
Von Vintage – Film Photography Project
2010 was a big year for film and creative work for me. With a new Hasselblad, I continued work on my film project, Von Vintage. The site is soon to be relaunched and will also be selling prints! Keep an eye out!
Lomography Spinner 360 – 35mm film toy camera
I’d have to say that my most used camera (other than my SLR) has to be the 360 spinner from Lomography. It’s a camera that literally spins 360 degrees (or more) in your hand, exposing a long strip of 35mm film, including the sprocket holes! I was in Melbourne, shooting the Finders Keepers Markets when I found this puddle. You can also see some other shots of mine on the PHOTOJOJO website!
Fadez – Promo Photography
I worked with former Reds rugby player, Charlie Fetoai and the team at Fadez Men’s Barbershops for a pitch they were putting together for MTV. This isn’t one of the images used, but I found the antics and outtakes to be some of the funnest.
And an extra one of myself from a series I’m working on…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It was a busy busy year, and there were quite a few other shoots that I wish I could have included in this list! Coming in close, but not making it into my top 10 were : My shoot with Scott Spark, Help Portrait, the BNE project shoot with John Davis and working on the One Punch Can Kill Campaign!
For the last few months, working towards making Help Portrait happen again in Brisbane has probably been my biggest focus. It was actually also my last shoot of the year for which I’m thankful for as it was probably the most rewarding. Help Portrait is a day where photographers, makeup artists, editors, printers and assistants come together to use their skills to brighten the day of those in need. It’s an event in it’s second year that is currently held in over 300 locations around the world. The idea is so simple and can be replicated across many industries, the greatest example of that being Homeless Connect, held biannually here in Brisbane. The Help Portrait movement and many others like it, brings the realisation that there is always a new way to help others directly using the skills you have, it’s often just a matter of finding the best way to do it. For photographers, I think Help Portrait is one of these ways.
Thanks to the help of the team from last year as well as quite a few more keen and very generous professional and budding photographers, volunteers, printers, editors and makeup artist, we once again had a great day shooting portraits for people from three local charities. We worked with Lifeline – Disability Services, Red Cross and Wesley Mission this year and despite not everyone we invited able to make it due to the rain, still managed to give people something great to smile about. I’d like to thank the team, everyone who donated towards the cause to make it happen as well as Santa who showed up towards the end of the day! Please get in touch if you are keen to get involved in any shape or form next year. Here are a few behind the scenes shots.
