Posts tagged ‘mlb’
Ron Blomberg for Sports Illustrated
I had a fun assignment last week for Sports Illustrated to photograph Major League Baseball’s first ever designated hitter (DH), Ron Blomberg.
Ron played for the Yankees back in the 70s and even won a 1977 World Series Championship Ring. He took it off at one point and it was so tight, I didn’t think he’d get it back on!
The shoot took place at Yankee Stadium where I had access to the field and players dugout. I actually haddn’t worked in Yankee stadium since the 2009 World Series where I made a fun time-lapse.
As with all my portraits, my goal is to get as much variety as possible, so I arrived early with my assistant in order to find numerous options. As it turned out, Ron got a bit delated, so we ended up having some time to kill, all alone, while hanging out in the dugout and field. It was definitely a cool experience to be by ourselves in such a famous stadium.
Ron showed up for the shot and was a super nice and talkative. He was willing to spend as much time and pose however we wanted him. I really enjoyed his company during the shoot as he kept it interesting with all his stories from his career.
Another exciting shoot for a great client and awesome editors!
How the photo ran in the Sports illustrated iPad edition.
The World Series Time-Lapse
Lately, as I’ve been transitioning into cinematography, I’ve been experimenting with time-lapse photography. I’ve had a lot of practice while working on my latest project, Betrayed, (a motion picture short shot exclusively with the 5D Mark II staring Seth Gilliam from ‘The Wire’, Cara Buono from ‘The Sopranos‘ and PJ Sosko and is due out very soon!) so I decided to take what I’d learned to the World Series because I thought it would be a great opportunity to attempt this hit-or-miss process.
This time-lapse is a compilation of over 5,000 still-images I took from 3 cameras from about 25 locations, all around the inside/outside of Yankee Stadium, that gives a narrative of attending a game-winning World Series during the inaugural season of baseball’s most famous stadium.
This was probably one of the most tiring and time-consuming processes I’ve undertaken with still-photography. I arrived at Yankees Stadium around 3PM prior to the game and began scouting out locations for the time-lapse. The process itself took many hours and required me to rush around the monstrous stadium – scaling the upper decks, zipping back and forth from the outfield to the infield, and inside and out. Finally, I arrived home around 1:30AM and began downloading to my computer the 125GB (12,000 images) of RAW footage I’d collected.
After properly organizing all the files, I set my computer to stitch and render all the still images together in a low-resolution format just so I could see if the time-lapse actually worked. Exhausted, I finally got to bed around 5:30 AM while my computer rendered the files down. Given that the time-lapse consisted only of still images and not video, the files were 3-4 times the size of HD! Needless to say, my computer spent a good chunk of time rendering all the data.
The next morning, I woke up early to check out what I’d shot, and was truly excited by what I saw; the already visually interesting images came to life in a surreal way.
Finally, after stitching together all the raw footage, I handed over the files to my trusted editor/web designer, Laia Prats, to throw everything into Final Cut Pro and help me put it all together and add the audio track. I truly couldn’t have done this without her help. (THANK YOU soooo much, Laia!) If you ever need a website built, logo made, or any graphic design, I highly recommend Laia! She’s my designer.
Also, check out the write up on the New York Times LENS Blog.
A selection of snaps I took while at the stadium:
World Series Snaps – Images by Robert Caplin
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – World Series Performance
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – World Series 2009 – Images by Robert Caplin
Wow, what a night!
While shooting the World Series for MLB’s public relations dept., I had the opportunity to get some pretty exclusive access to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ performance prior to the opening pitch. What I found so amazing about the experience was that I felt I was documenting a genuine moment in both performer’s lives.
Jay-Z and Keys started their walk to the stage from center field which created this amazing scene where they were walking towards me far off in the distance while the Jumbotron overpowered the stadium with their larger-than-life figures. Upon arriving to the stage entrance, which is where I was shooting from, they had a few moments to wait until the live broadcast began when they could take the stage. At that point, you could tell they were super excited as the hammed it up to the camera and shared animated glances at each other. I would imagine, no matter how many concerts or stadiums they’ve played in the past, this had to be one the the most memorable moments in their lives happening in front of me. I know both are native New Yorkers and Yankees fans, quite an honor it would be to play for the world LIVE on television and in front of thousands at the Stadium. I was truly honored to have been given that opportunity. I’ll never forget this evening, that’s for sure. What a show!
I hope you enjoy the photos!
Congrats to the Yankees and to Jay-Z and Alicia on the killer evening!
Here’s the broadcast on YouTube!
More World Series photos to come….
