I recently made another visit to the United Stated to attend the Creative Mornings Summit in Austin, Texas. We started our road trip with Creative Mornings crews from Oakland, Montevideo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Tijuana and Melbourne. Following the event, I joined Phoot Camp friends David Worthington and Kristina Yamamoto for another road trip from Portland back down to LA where we drove, hiked and photographed some of the most beautiful spots in between. We had almost made it to LA, with coastal fog obscuring most of our Big Sur drive. Despite the poor visibility, it actually made for some dramatic photos which I hope to share more of soon. This was the Bixby Creek Bridge which apparently rarely ever looks like this.
I recently converted one of my old backup cameras into a “Full Spectrum” DSLR. The process allows me to use the camera to filter out specific ranges of light using filters. I was specifically interested in photographing in the infrared spectrum of light and brought my camera along to a weekend away with a few talented photographers in Mt. Beauty, a few hours drive from Melbourne. This is one of my favourites from the weekend. Im thrilled with the results! I’ll update the “Projects” section of my website soon with a few more, once I get around to sitting down in front of it all!
After wrapping up a shoot early last week, I decided to dump literally everything I had in my bag out and arrange it into a tidy flat-lay. I think this could be the start of yet another series…
I recently joined a few Instagrammers out on Phillip Island, just under two hours out of Melbourne, for a tour of the beautiful coastline out at Cape Woolamai. There wasn’t much of a sunset like we had hoped for, but it made for the most peaceful night, shooting long exposures of the waves and seeing the silhouettes of thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters flying above. It was so refreshing to get excited about photography outside of my professional style of work and just have some fun. This is what I saw:
Since 2010, I’ve ended each year by wrapping up with some of my favourite moments through the photographs I’ve taken. It’s been a great year for pushing myself to experiment in new areas and styles of photography, both commercially and personally. I found myself heading in a few new directions with the primary focus being on creating new personal work, selling my work as prints and to continue to grow my portfolio photography business, “Foliolio”. Looking back on my photography from the year, it’s interesting to see how well these three things seemed to fit together and helped one another grow. This is my top 15 from 2015.
Although I spent much of my childhood in Japan, and still head back over to Tokyo at least once a year, I’ve never really had a chance to play tourist and actually explore some of the most beautiful and interesting places that Japan has to offer. This year I made a conscious effort to do just that and as a result, saw some incredible things. One of them being the beautiful deer of Nara.
I teamed up with One Fine Print who helped me get my personal work onto people’s walls, something I’ve been striving to do well for years. Not only did they do an exceptional job at that, they also got one of my prints on the air and into the penthouse of Shay and Dean, the winners of “The Block” a reality TV show about renovations with a strong focus on interior design and styling. If you’re in Melbourne, be sure to check them out on the walls of the Pop Up shop before it closes!
I continued to work on my playful food photography series, “Graze“. It’s an experimental food photography series in which I give myself some studio time and some “ingredients” to see what kind of playful food creations I can come up with. This was the result, I call it “Frankenfruit”.
Foliolio, my side-photography business which focusses on working with designers who want their work photographed well, quickly gained momentum and I worked with some incredibly talented designers. This was one of my favourites from a colourful shoot with Wild Hen on the design work they did for Fonda Mexican.
With the growth of Foliolio, I found the perfect studio to work out of. This small decision resulted in the ability to create some great work and I’m so glad I decided to find a dedicated space to work out of. It even has a space for my hammock, what more can I say!
In between shoots, things got pretty messy in the studio thanks to a new photo series “spill”, but now everything smells great (ie. like coffee)!
…and I continued to play with my food.
My main photo series of the year was “Handy“, which features creative people and what they do with their hands. One of my favourites was this one with Magdalena Ksiezak who makes adorable paper crafted creations.
Abandoning the seriousness of photography and with this new fascination with hands, I adopted a more playful approach, with a light-hearted spin-off series called, “Stuff you can’t do with Novelty Sized Hands“.
The series fed other ideas, which led to some experiments, including the idea to create an “ice sculpture” using the novelty sized hands as the mould.
I worked with friend and graphic artist, Spencer Harrison AKA Spenceroni on some promotional imagery for Hello Play, his exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne’s CBD. We created a series of playful photographs, showcasing Spencer’s work, all the while “playing” and experimenting as we did.
I was featured on the front cover of PDN Magazine’s January issue. It was an issue on innovation, featuring the work I created with Nate Bolt and the long exposure of his drone over the Californian desert.
A 7 hour drive from Melbourne, Do Lectures Australia once again took place in the beautiful Victorian high country in Glen Valley atPayne’s Hut. It’s a land without phone reception or internet access, and a sky with seemingly more stars than negative space. I couldn’t have been happier being back in the thick it all to photograph for another 6 days of incredible people, great conversation and a good community.
I started to get a bit more involved with Melbourne’s photography and Instagram community. I met some great folks and got to be a tourist on Phillip Island, shooting late into the night and witnessing thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters flying overhead. I have to say, it feels like things are coming full circle and am feeling inspired by landscapes once again. I’m looking forward to where this all heads in the new year! Playful, experimental, handy landscapes for people’s walls?
And Lucky last, this ridiculous selfie I took with Phil Ferguson aka @ChiliPhilli when we did our Handy Series shoot.
Have a great holiday season everyone and all the best for 2016!!!
If you’re a fan of the TV show The Block, you may have seen one of my leaf prints on the walls of Dean and Shay’s apartment last night! I had known that a photographic print of mine had been used to decorate the foyer of their penthouse apartment, but didn’t really know whether or not we’d get much love from the judges. But my jaw hit the floor when judges Neale Whitaker and Darren Palmer pointed out the work and commented on how beautiful it was, likening the space to an art gallery. I couldn’t have asked for a better debut of one of my prints to the Blocktagon!
If you’ve been interested in the print for the walls of your own home, it can be found here on the One Fine Print Website:
I’m pretty excited to announce that I’ve been working on a few new prints for One Fine Print’s latest pop-up store. After an amazing response to it’s first pop-up on Smith Street in Fitzroy, it’s just re-opened it’s doors in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s North. So if you’ve been wanting some large, printed photographic work of your own, come and have a look. It’s a great time to go see them big and on real walls! I’m in good company, sharing the space with Danish Furniture from Retropia, and some incredibly talented professional photographers. I’ve got a few new prints up in there now and am finally working on some more colourful still lifes too! I’ve included a few of my favourite prints available through the store, both physically and online below.
The store is open until the end of December @ 70 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, next to “Gelobar”.Keep an eye out for “the bananas” in the window! Hope you can check it out 🙂
After an AMAZING trip to Japan, I’m finally back in the studio, spilling stuff and cleaning up heaps. I’ve started to continue to photograph more images for my “Spill Series“. This one was probably one of the messiest, but delicious.
See #lobospill for more from this series on Instagram.
I worked with graphic artist, Spencer Harrison AKA Spenceroni on some promotional imagery for Hello Play, his upcoming exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne’s CBD.
“Celebrating all things play, Hello Play is an invitation to put aside being serious for a moment and reconnect with your sense of curiosity and adventure. From paintings, patterns, and prints, to sculptures and more. Hello Play is experimental, colourful, and a little bit whimsical, but most of all fun.”
With this in mind, we created a series of playful photographs, showcasing Spencer’s work, all the while “playing” and experimenting as we did. The resulting images were designed for use in both square format for Spencer’s Instagram account, but also for larger dimensions for his press release and other social media. Here are a few of my favourite’s from the shoot:
We also made this fun animation which Spencer turn into a gif and video:
In the lead up to The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, I worked with the “Three Toms” of Australian comedy; Tom Gleeson, Tom Ballard and Tommy Little for a piece in Tiger Air’s inflight magazine, Tiger Tales. As a big fan of the comedy festival in Melbourne and having seen them all perform live before, it was an incredible experience to finally work with them. The location was just as amazing, at the heavily themed “The Carlton” bar on Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD. It was an early start with just three hours to capture three cover options, several inside double page spread options, individual portraits and a suite of images to accompany the story. I somehow managed to get it all done! Here are a few of my favourite spreads.
Just 6 months after attending Do Lectures USA and less than a year since my first Do Lectures Australia, I think it’s safe to say that I’m totally hooked on what a fellow Do’er simply referred to as “TEDx, but bush”. A 7 hour drive from Melbourne, Do Lectures Australia once again took place in the beautiful Victorian high country in Glen Valley at Payne’s Hut. It’s a land without phone reception or internet access, and a sky with seemingly more stars than negative space. I couldn’t have been happier being back in the thick it all to photograph for another 6 days of incredible people, great conversation and a good community. This is what I saw.
Working as a one man band, trying to balance both professional and personal work often leaves me too “time poor” to see my personal projects reach their final and ultimate materialisation… PRINT. I’ve done this many times before, through exhibitions, a print store for Von Vintage and countless, tedious one-off sales over email. I have to say, it always takes over my life! With relief and elation, I’m happy to announce that I have partnered with One Fine Print to bring to life the work that I most truly love to create.
With a pop-up showcase coming up on Smith street in Fitzroy, Melbourne and online sales through their website, some of my favourite pieces will finally be available in large printed form. Stay tuned for more info on the launch on 30th of March and in the meantime, check out all the beautiful work from all the incredible photographers involved.
One Fine Print – Pop Up Showcase and Launch 327 Smith Street, Fitzroy Open Daily 10am – 6pm March 30 – April 26
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.
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!
…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 worked with the singing, songwriting genius that is Scott Spark again on the artwork and promotional photography for his new album Muscle Memory, which was just been released. Scott has a real knack for not only knowing, but also being able articulate what he wants to see in the photography that goes along side his music and at the same time was able to give me the trust and confidence for me do what I do best. It’s something I love about working with creative people and I think it shows in the photography and the fun gifs we created with my Nishika 3D lenticular camera.
I was recently interviewed by Jonathan Cherry from Mull It Over. I thought I’d share it here, along with some of the images that I sent through to be featured. If you haven’t checked it out, head over to Mull It Over for some good photographic inspiration.
MARK LOBO: I grew up wanting to be a police man, baseball player or comedian. All things that I would have been terrible at!
JC: Who or what is inspiring you at the moment?
ML: Passionate people. It’s a bit broad, but meeting new people who love and believe in what they do really inspires me to create great work and love the process.
JC: What are you up to right now?
ML: I just got back from visiting family in Tokyo, so at the moment I’m consciously taking things a bit slow while I still can. I’m using the time to plan and gather everything I need for a self-portrait application idea for Phoot Camp 2014 (you know, neck brace, dumbbells, rubber duckies, etc. etc.)
JC: Have you had mentors along the way?
ML: I haven’t had anyone that I would officially call a mentor, but I have a group of friends who hold me accountable and help me with the support I need when it comes to making things happen. They are from different backgrounds and live in different cities around the world which I find gives me a fresh perspective and guidance with the obstacles I face and ideas I have.
JC: Where are you based right now and how is it shaping you?
ML: Melbourne, Australia. It’s cold (by Australian standards), it’s beautiful and the people here get it when it comes to people following their passions. There’s a lot of support and it leaves me constantly inspired and feeling comfortable to create. At the same time, there are so many talented people here that it really drives me to create the best work I can.
JC: One piece of advice to photography graduates?
ML: There are a few things I’ll often share with new photographers. I usually send them this link. The most important thing would be to know what you want, which I think works on many levels. Knowing what you want to capture and how you want an image to look before even looking through the viewfinder is pretty important. And in the long term, knowing where you want to be 20 years time helps us make sure we stay on track and brings value to the things we do on a daily basis.
JC: If all else fails – what is your plan B?
ML: I think a plan B would only really happen if I couldn’t physically shoot anymore. I have a tech background and like building things, so I’d most likely be working towards building a web based, photography related business.
JC: Is it important to you to be a part of a creative community?
ML: Community is so important. Trust, support and good passionate people are what I look for in a community, which has transpired through a group of big-hearted photographers I met through a photographic retreat called Phoot Camp. When you meet someone for the first time, and feel like you’ve known them forever, that’s when you know you’ve found your community. It’s validating and inspiring to meet other people like yourself.
Melbourne stayed open over a crisp summer’s night, to transform itself into a visual celebration of art and light. Along with 500,000 others, I flocked into the city to experience what I had only heard about the year before. Despite the crowds, it was a beautiful night to be out into the early hours of the morning. Here are a few photographs of what I saw at White Night.
Semi Permanent in Melbourne had me on my feet for two crazy big days, photographing the event and also shooting some video. A constant highlight was no doubt hearing inspiring, creative speakers like Jessica Hische, Glendyn Ivin and Seb Lester, to name a few, but also to be able to photograph them back stage. It was an inspiring weekend.
I’m so excited to announce my involvement with photographing Chrissie Swan‘s new fashion range, Avella, for Big W. I worked with Big W and Chrissie to create the imagery to be used for the range, on everything from swing tags, to in-store display. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Here are a few of the images from one of their Melbourne stores and catalogue.
Also on the shelves at the store was Chrissie’s new book, “Is it just me”, which I photographed the cover for!
For a behind the scenes look at the photo shoot itself check out the video by Melbourne film makers Alex and Jono Films!
Many thanks to Elleni Toumpas for all her hard work assisting on the shoot, Lynda Evans from Designedly for her ever exquisite post production work, Watercooler for their ongoing support and of course, Chrissie for being such a legend to work with!
I’ve recently started to put aside a bit of time to focus on a new food photography series that I’ve been working on. I spent a few hours working from my home in Melbourne to experiment with some potatoes that I had been, err… “growing” for a few months. Initially destined for a delicious roast in the colder winter months, it soon became apparent that potatoes growing out of control can look quite incredible. So I left them to do their thing in a cupboard. I’m going to push forward with this series, in the direction of photographing simple, interesting looking foods with a bit of character. I imagined them as a family of potatoes escaping the heat of the oven. Here’s what I came up with:
Here is the previous image from the series:
If you have any thoughts on what food I should photograph next, please feel free to comment and let me know!
Wow. I’m amazed at how fast this year has gone by. I moved to the beautiful, vibrant and creative city of Melbourne, made new friends, watched a billion comedy shows and worked with some incredible new clients. Here is my annual wrap up of my top 13 from 2013.
Michael Doneman – One of my favourite portraits of the year was of Michael, a friend and former business coach.
Bay of Fires – I worked on some editorial photography for a story on “Walks of Australia” One of the most beautiful walks we did was the Bay of Fires, in Tasmania. It was stunning.
Banana shoot – My new business cards will have “Fruit Balancing Expert” written on them. I worked on a few playful food photography images for a personal project.
Chrissie Swan – I worked with the beautiful Chrissie Swan for some imagery to promote her new book. I also worked with her on a different shoot, but more on that in the new year! 🙂
A New Von Vintage Print – A few old negatives were unboxed, scanned and I finally released another print for my film photography project, Von Vintage.
Semi Permanent Melbourne – Semi Permanent in Melbourne had me on my feet for two crazy big days, photographing the event and also shooting video. I saw some great speakers and came away totally inspired. This is a portrait of fellow photographer and speaker, Magdalena Wosinska.
Dare Iced coffee – On a caffeine high, I photographed some product and lifestyle shots of Dare Iced Coffee’s new cold pressed coffee range at St. Ali in South Melbourne.
Dicko – I had the honour of photographing Dicko, in creating a set of imagery to be used for Watercooler Talent and Media, a company which he co-founded.
iPhone Photography Awards – In the cold of winter, I received a few honourable mentions for some of my Instagram photos submitted into the iPhone Photography Awards. This was taken during a Melbourne heatwave, and had me wishing all year for that warm weather to come back around again. Still waiting, Melbourne!
Otway Harvest – Travelling with a group of international journalists, I worked on capturing the food culture of Melbourne and surrounds. The highlight was shooting at Otway Harvest, the beautiful ocean side truffle farm of chef, Steve Earl. I’ll put together photo essay of this trip once the story is published in the new year!
The White House – I photographed a fewbusinesses at their amazing shared work space known as “The White House” for Est Magazine, home to extraordinary ethical businesses like Small Giants, Dumbo Feather and Tom Organic. It was such a beautiful space to shoot in, I want to live there.
