Over a year in the planning, Alanna and Scott’s wedding was as organised as a wedding could possibly be. One thing about weddings though, is there are so many variables that come into play on the day that could easily turn a good shoot into a bad one. Starting out with a few concerns about the cold and overcast/rainy weather, the the skies soon cleared and the day was perfect. However, with a late ceremony at 4pm and sunset at 5pm. We were unable to use any of the available daylight for the location shots and had to cut out a few ideas. We had no choice but to do the entire location shoot post sunset, which was actually a first for me. I’m thrilled with the results though. I suppose it goes to show that you can plan as much as you want, but in the end you can’t always rely on your initial ideas and will need to work off of what you have.

More imagery at: Mark Lobo Photography - Brisbane Photographer

I love visiting Japan and I specifically love the city of Tokyo, where I spent a lot of my childhood.  Although I’ll often spend a lot of time catching up with family, and this time, actually spent a lot of it catching up on work, I made some time to take some photos around town.  I’m fascinated with documenting the lifestyle, and history of the country, all within such a rapidly evolving culture.  I’ve chosen a few images to share, from ‘Old Japan’ to the faces of Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s famous shopping and entertainment districts.

Last night I attended the preview opening of ‘Underexposed’ an exhibition showcasing some amazing live band photography from Brisbane Photographers.  With well over a dozen photographers, such as Dane Beesley, Kylie Keene and Elleni Toumpas showcasing their work, the walls were filled with hundreds of images over the last 20 years of music history.  It was great to finally meet some photographers who’s work I have seen through various street press, online and social media.  With local music from local bands and musicians the atmosphere couldn’t be more fitting.  Underexposed opens tonight at Joshua Levi Galleries in Wooloongabba and will be featuring live music in the gallery every Friday and Saturday until the end of the show.  More details and gig dates below.

UNDEREXPOSED @

JOSHUA LEVI GALLERIES

4 Ipswich Rd
Woolloongabba

April 17 - May 4 2009

LINKS

Underexposed: underexposed.com.au
Joshua Levi Galleries: joshualevigalleries.com.au
Facebook: facebook.com/event.php?eid=64634172081

GIGS

Tickets: available here

FRI APR 17 - OPENING NIGHT

BLACK MARKET RHYTHM CO / Drawn from Bees / Tim Loydell and the Deckchairs / Banawurun / Mikki Ross & MORE SOON!

SAT APR 18

SCREAMFEEDER / My Fiction / Grand Atlantic / The Cairos / Parlour Style / Chloe Tully & MORE SOON!

FRI APR 24 - HIP HOP NIGHT

IMPOSSIBLE ODDS / 333 / XXI / TSO & MORE SOON!

SAT APR 25

VILLAINS OF WILHELM / The Bloodpoets / Davey Spicer and the Creatures of Habit / High Plains Drifter / White Mansions & MORE SOON!

FRI MAY 1

RHIANNON HART / Georgia Potter & Band / Yeo and the Fresh Goods / Mick McCombe / The Horse Darkly / Dave Di Marco & MORE SOON!

SAT MAY 2  - CLOSING NIGHT PARTY

THE TRAVELLING SO & SO’S / Blame Ringo! / The Quills / Pear and the Awkward Orchestra / Dan & Dilmah / Bernie Carson  & MORE SOON! (more…)

Pecha Kucha Night - Volume 10 was held as part of the Brisbane Ideas Festival on the 27th of March. I had the opportunity to present at the event and speak about some of my work and projects.

Pecha Kucha is an event where any designer, artist, architect, interactive media or alike, are given the soapbox to present their designs, thoughts and ideas. Each presenter gets 20 seconds to showcase and talk about 20 slides of their work.

This is a video of my presentation. Lots of “umms”, I know, but with a packed crowd of 300 in the room, 200 on the 2nd floor balcony, and another few hundred on the ground floor watching the live feed, I was pretty nervous!

As part of the “second degree” of the BNE project, a photographic project looking at people’s inspirations, chosen by the subjects of the photos themselves, I did a shoot for Matt Rabbidge from 9 Lives. Matt was chosen as the inspiration of Nick Crocker, one of the first portraits of the series as his inspiration for the project.  Trying to capture someone you don’t really know well in a portrait can be quite a challenge, but I suppose that’s what makes the project fun to shoot.  One of the inspiring stories behind Matt is the collaborative effort with his friends to get the 9 lives gallery off the ground.  With this in mind, we chose the gallery as the perfect location, and invited everyone along for the shoot.  We started off with a few solo portraits at the front of the gallery and set up a second camera to record a time lapse of the shoot.  I later found that my favourite shot was one off of the second camera.  The shot that really captured Matt was one of him sitting, looking into the main room of the gallery, as I set up for the shoot.  I couldn’t have hoped to capture a better moment without even holding the camera!  Check out the resulting shots from he shoot as well as the time lapse video:

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a number of photo shoots for my ongoing photographic project entitled BNE.  As part of the project I take a look at the inspiring people that surround me and tell their story through two images.  I recently photographed Josh Collings, from Joshua Levi Galleries, at his new space at the Bell Brother’s building in the Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.  After seeing what Josh recently did with an old antique shop, transforming it into a unique space for artists and musicians, it seemed fitting that I shoot his portrait at his new gallery whilst still under construction.  The second image of the series is scheduled to be shot after his opening in a few weeks time.  As part of the project, I ask each of my inspirations to select the next inspiration in the series, playing on the idea of six degrees of separation.  You can read more about the project here:

Mark Lobo Photography - The BNE Project

I also took the opportunity to shoot a timelapse video of what was an extremely energetic and fun shoot:

On a Mobile Device? Try this link for the video: BNE Project - Josh Collings Photoshoot for Mobile

This Tuesday, over 175 cities around the world will be hosting ‘Twestivals’ in an effort to help raise money and awareness for charity: water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The event will bring together the world’s online Twitter “micro-blogging” communities for an evening of music, art and entertainment.  Brisbane will be hosting their very own Twestival this Thursday the 12th February at 6.30pm at Metro Arts in the city.  For those interested, be sure to check out the Brisbane Twestival Website, where you can donate and also buy tickets to the event.  There will be live bands and entertainment as well as a live auction for which I have donated the two images below.  Hope to see you there!

Brisbane Twestival

February 12th 2009, 6.30pm
Metro Arts
109 Edward St, Brisbane, QLD, 4000

I recently did a photo shoot for freelance writer Rebecca Leigh. Shot in Maleny, in beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland, I was inspired to take a short time lapse video of the shoot. This is the first of many time lapse movies I hope to make in 2009.

Earlier in the year I won 2 awards at Shooting Raw 2008.  Part of the prize was 3 days, 4 nights in the Whitsunday Islands. It took me a while, but I finally found some time to head out and re-discover the islands which I had visited on a road trip in my student days.  This time, armed with digital camera, I shot a range of panoramic images of the beautiful beaches and lookouts on a number of the islands.  This is one of my favourite views from the trip.

Hill Inlet Lookout

I was recently asked to do a shoot for local Brisbane hair stylist, Michelle Morrison, who wanted me to help showcase 6 solid looks for a hair stylist competition she was entering.  Due to the variable nature of the styles, we needed to work out of the salon to ensure that full control of the hair and makeup was maintained.   Equipped with a portable backdrop and studio lights, setting up a small ‘fashion studio’ for the shoot in the limited space proved to be quite an entertaining challenge!  With a full team of make up artists and hair stylists on hand, we delivered some stunning looks with some of what I have been referring to as ‘Killer Fringes’!