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This year brought a number of exiting new experiences, both professionally and personally. I walked 100km, photographed under the stars of the Californian desert and surpassed my record for the most number of shoots in a year! It felt so fast though, and I’m still struggling to understand how I managed to pack it all into a year.  Here is my top 14 from 2014 in photographs:

Graze – There were a few new additions to my playful food photography series, including some hot potatoes.

Foliolio – I created a photographic service for designers who want their work photographed well.

Shotkit – I was asked to photograph and talk about some of the gear I use, organised neatly, so I put together a little timelapse video of the process:

360 – Melbourne Hip Hop artist 360, was the subject of an “Ink not Mink” campaign which I photographed for PETA.

Do Lectures Australia and USA – I photographed Do Lectures Australia and also made my way to Do Lectures USA where I met some great minds.  I came back inspired and ready to make some big changes.

Oxfam Trailwalker – A painful and exhausting experience, but a truly rewarding and memorable one was training with a group of friends to walk 100km in 34 hours, to raise money for Oxfam Australia, and we did it! Registrations for Trailwalker 2015 is closing soon, get in quick!

Scott Spark – Scott Spark released his new album, muscle memory, which I had photographed the album artwork and promotional photography for. I had taken some playful photographs on a Nishika 3D lenticular film camera during our shoot, which I scanned and turned into this gif:

Peter Berner – I worked with Australian comedian and TV personality Peter Berner, on some new promotional imagery and finally got to use the yellow backdrop that I had been wanting to use for months!

Phoot Camp Selfie – I photographed the most ambitions selfie I’ve ever attempted as my application to get into Phoot Camp 2014.

…And I got in! I photographed this night portrait of William Wilkinson, late at night in the desert at Phoot Camp.

PDN Cover – One of the most incredible things that came out of the Phoot Camp experience was this collaboration with Nate Bolt, who flew his drone across the desert as we captured it’s light painting.  We ended up getting the cover of the January 2015 issue of PDN!

Travel things – I tacked on a few extra things to my US trip, which included attending Do Lectures USA, a Creative Mornings summit in New York, catching up with colleagues, friends and family and going to Sleep No More (if you’re ever in NYC, it’s a MUST). This is a summary of the experience in one photo:

Squam Lake – Between events, I spent a day out at Squam Lake, New Hampshire.  Exactly what I needed to see me off on the last leg of my journey to New York. I also put a photo essay up on Exposure, which you can see here.

Handy Series – Although still in it’s early days, what started out as a series on gang signs, soon turned into a series on creatives and the work they do with their hands. I’ve got a bunch of people lined up to take part in this project so stay tuned for an update!

And for a special bonus 15th, I wanted to share my favourite gif with a bunch of new friends from different Creative Mornings chapters, getting down and attempting to moonwalk at the Summit After party (photo by smilebooth):

Have a great holiday season everyone and all the best for 2015!!!

I don’t consider myself to be much of a gear head.   As long as the gear I use is designed to last and does what a certain job or project needs it to do, I’m not worried.  The reality is every job needs different tools, so I have a basic kit that I can rely on, and hire everything else.  If I start to use that gear regularly enough, then I’ll stop hiring it and buy it.  I was asked by shotkit to showcase what’s in my bag and this is what I photographed. You can see all the details on what everything is here: shotkit.com/mark-lobo

and here’s a little video of the process:

There is no shortage of creative inspiration when it comes to working with people here in Melbourne. Over the years I’ve found that apart from the photography itself, it’s the people that I work with that really make the job that I do, something I love. With so many designers and creative people making up my network of colleagues and friends, I’ve decided to reach out to people that surround me with a new idea, which I’m excited to share. It’s called Foliolio.

Foliolio is a basically a photographic service that will help give designers and creatives the representation they deserve when it comes to showcasing their hard work in their portfolios. There is a strong focus on great photography and creating something that stands out from the crowd.

I worked with my friends at Pennant to photograph their business cards as my first Foliolio client. Here are a few of the shots, as well as a behind the scenes video.

You can stay in touch with Foliolio via Twitter, Facebook, or by Subscribing. 🙂

I collaborated with “Maker” Adam Head to create an artwork for Seven With Another. The exhibition brings together 14 artists, who are paired up into 7 unlikely teams to produce an artwork around a theme. Our theme was the number 6, hence the six sided cube.

In developing this piece, we sought to explore and express our shared aesthetic interests—ranging from vintage design to the creative application of optical illusion techniques.

Inspired by 3D lenticular prints (in which morphing effects are created by displaying different images as the print is viewed from different angles), this sculpture uses movement, light and reflection to offer a constantly changing visual experience that transitions though moments of clarity and chaos.

A further responsive element was introduced to lift the viewer’s experience from passive observer to an active participant in this process of change. Photographing the sculpture with a flash would trigger a flash from inside the cube, resulting in an explosive burst of light in the resulting photograph.

The next edition of Seven With Another opens Thursday 11 July 7pm at Brisbane Powerhouse.

Here are a few images from the exhibition and behind the scenes. You can also see the video in HD, here.