Brisbane Photographer Mark Lobo Photography – Brisbane Photograher – unique, inspiring and creative.
October 14th, 2010
Finders Keepers Melbourne
I was in Melbourne on the weekend as the photographer for the Finders Keepers Markets, a rapidly growing bi-annual event held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. It was the first Finders Keepers held in Melbourne and was probably their biggest yet. I think it’s says a lot about the creative community in Melbourne. Here are a few of my favourite shots:
I’m currently expanding to base myself out of both Brisbane and Melbourne so don’t hesitate to get in contact for any portrait, commercial or wedding photography in the area!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of Phoot Camp 2010 this year. Phoot Camp, hosted by one of my favourite websites Pictory, and sponsored by Virb, was an elaborate and crazy weekend of fun, based out of a mansion in Agoura Hills in LA. As a newcomer to the camp, held previously in the wilderness of Northern California, I spent a lot of time getting to know the amazing, creative minds that made up the camp and shooting portraits. I came back from the camp nothing short of inspired by the great people and their work.
The official Phoot Camp site has just launched and will be showcasing the work of fellow Phoot Campers over the next few weeks. I had the honour of being the first to be featured. Be sure to bookmark the site which is going to be getting some great daily updates from all the photographers, so check it out!
And finally, here are a few videos that fellow Phoot Campers Simon Biswas and Paul Octavious put together, the first being the Phoot Camp trailer and the second, a series of video portraits followed by a few time lapse videos:
I’ve always been a fan of the photography in Frankie and clients will sometimes refer to the work they see in the magazine as a reference to photography they like. So it’s an honour that Scott Spark chose this photo I took to be in his writeup in the mag. You can read and see more photos from my shoot with Scott here.
Scott’s album, “Fail Like You Mean It”, was just released and you can listen/buy it on iTunes or get it at Avid Reader (Brisbane) and JB Hi-Fi.
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:
Harley Davidson Tour – Editorial Photography for Tiger Airways
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:
