Posts tagged ‘new york times’
Profile: Megyn Kelly of FOX News
I had an opportunity to photograph Megyn Kelly, the anchor of “America Live” on Fox News for a New York Times Style Section profile piece. I’ve always enjoyed shooting on the sets of television shows, whether they be sitcom, news, or dramas. It’s interesting for me to document how television is made.
I met Megyn on set a few moments prior to her live newscast. I wanted to get a good mix of documentary and portraiture, so I only spent a few moments on set taking her portrait, rather I wanted to document her while preparing for her show and delivering the news On Air. Normally when I shoot on a set, I can only roam and take photos freely during commercial breaks or through the glass of a control room because of the camera noise. This time, I was able to shoot continuously though the broadcast on set because I was using my new Leica M9, which is super quiet…just love that camera!
Her show is three hours long and afterward we rendezvoused in her office where I took more relaxed portraits. It was a small, but nicely decorated traditional office incorporating many photos of her family, her large shoe collection, and a comfy lounge chair set dozens of floors in the New York City sky.
Poor Megyn was suffering a mega cold the day of our shoot having to suck on lozenges and bear through awful coughing spells during commercial breaks. She has a tough job, especially when you’re under the weather!
I had a really nice time over at Fox News. I found their PR team, stage manager, cameramen, and Megyn herself were more than accommodating and super friendly. I also made my dad and grandfather proud having steeped foot in their favorite news channel’s headquarters!
Bai Xi Chinese Circus in Times Square
Last week I received an assignment to photograph a preview of a new Chinese Circus “Bai Xi” that is now playing at the New Victory Theater right in Times Square. Since it hadn’t yet open, the performance was basically just for me! Well, of course it was a practice run for all the circus actors, some of whom were adolescent girls age 12 and up…. The theater itself is quite small so no matter where you sit, you feel right up in the action. There’s only about 2 dozen acts ranging from contortionists, to Cirque-like flying, to clown acts, and ending with the rare “Wheel of Death”.
Enjoy the photos and read more about the circus in the New York Times.
‘Love and Cartagena’ for The New York Times
I’ve always dreamed of becoming a jet-setting travel photographer commissioned to explore the world displaying my work in publications and galleries. And every-so-often the stars line up and I brush up against that dream. My most recent example starts with a little hustle and luck.
I was on the phone with my awesome photo editor over at the New York Times Travel desk soon after the earthquake in Chile. A separate client of mine had just reached out and was in need of a photographer in Chile to take a portrait and he’d love if he could hire me, but unfortunately his budget couldn’t cover the costs of physically getting me there (the pricey plane tickets, hotels, etc.), which is understandable considering the distance.
Thinking I might be able to kill two birds with one stone, I called the NY Times to see if they happened to need anything shot in the Chile, which would enable me to get down south. She took a look at her planner and informed me that there was nothing in South America slated for publication anytime in the near future, except for a few assignments in Colombia.
“I’ll take it!” I said, which resulted in laughter from both of us…then a bit of silence… “No, seriously…” I encouraged.
After chatting a while longer, I was able to arrange the timeline and budget to make it work and I was tasked with two separate assignments in Colombia slated to be shot April 5-11.
The first assignment I shot was Bogotá 36 Hours, a weekly Travel column that gives travelers ideas of places to see during a quick visit to random destination cities around the world. I recently shot one of those in Palm Beach, Fla. But, I’ll talk more about that one after the NY Times publishes the article….
After bouncing around Bogotá three days shooting my first assignment, I hopped an hour-long flight to the coastal Caribbean city of Cartagena. Cartagena’s Old City is completely surrounded with a mammoth cannon-studded fortress wall and a massive castle that once protected the Spanish port city from English pirate attacks in the mid-1600s.
My job was to illustrate a story about famed author Gabriel García Márquez who wrote many fictional novels, one of which won him a Nobel Prize. Nearly all of his novels took place in a cities heavily inspired by Cartagena, a city in which Márquez still lives. Cartagena is a truly beautiful city, has stunning architecture, vibrant colors, amazing people, and stellar flavors…a place certainly pleasing to all of the senses.
I must admit my favorite stop, though ever-so-short was to the Basurto Market that was mentioned in the article…it was a complete contrast to the tourist vibe in the old city and was a winding path of stalls that sold produce, meats, fish, grain, food, booze, and more.
I was fortunate to have a wonderful fixer, Dayro Reyes, who helped me along the way arranging transportation and my entire schedule so I’d be able to get to all the places mentioned in both articles. I tip my hat to you, Dayro. Thank you.
I had a total of 35 hours on the ground in Cartagena before I had to catch a red-eye flight back to Bogotá and sleep overnight in the airport to catch my early AM flight back to NYC.
What a great trip. I hope you enjoy my pictures!
Check out the NY Times story ‘Love and Cartagena‘ as written by Anand Giridharadas.
You can see more photos of Cartagena in my archives. Below is a slideshow with a much broader take!
Cartagena, Colombia – Images by Robert Caplin
36 Hours – Palm Beach, Florida
A few weeks ago I was in Florida visiting my grandparents in Naples and was able to also squeeze in a “36 Hour” travel story in Palm Beach, FL for the New York Times. Every week the NY Times Travel Section publishes a column called 36 Hours, which highlights a different city every week and essentially gives a laundry list of thing to do and places to visit should one spend a quick weekend visiting the city. I was tasked with finding pretty pictures of the beautiful, quirky Palm Beach.
Palm Beach for blog – Images by Robert Caplin
The NY Times article gave a brief history of the small island just off the cost Florida and also served as my tour guide bringing me to museums, restaurants, beaches, resorts, and bars to make pretty images. I had a very nice time and crammed a lot into the brief time I had in the city.
My next travel assignment will take me to Bogotá and Cartagena, Colombia in early April…and I’m certainly looking forward to it. If anyone has any advice prior to my South American adventure, please reach out and give me some tips!
One Day In Haiti
About a week ago I was surfing the web on my laptop, as I regularly do before I hit the sack, and came across a N.Y.Times video regarding a relief organization called Corporate Aviation Responding in Emergencies (C.A.R.E.). They are a group of volunteers from the business aviation community that coordinate flights for critical transport during major disasters such as the Haitian earthquake. It was mentioned in the video how they wished there was more media attention for private relief efforts like theirs because they can be far more effective getting to the outlying areas.
Haiti For Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
I immediately shot an email to the president of C.A.R.E. letting her know I’d be in Florida for a week visiting my grandparents, as well as shooting a travel assignment for The N.Y. Times, and I’d be more than happy to volunteer to fly a mission with them to help document their humanitarian effort and give a hand in any way I could. Much to my surprise, there was a response in my inbox when I woke up saying they’d love to have me!
I woke up at 4 AM this past Tuesday morning, left my grandparent’s home in Naples, and drove to the Fort Lauderdale Executive airport where I met Sueanne Campion of C.A.R.E., who had arranged for me to fly with pilot Rich Pickett. Rich had flown in from San Diego and has been flying back and forth from Fort Lauderdale and Haiti transporting relief supplies, medical personal, injured Haitians, and newly-adopted orphans.
Most of the seats had been removed from the Pilatus PC-12 in order to accommodate the relief supplies we would be transporting (ranging from generators, tents, food, walkers, and penicillin). Once all the supplies were loaded, we took off heading straight into the rising sun and over the Bahamas – it was quite a view. As I sat in the co-pilot’s seat and Rich, who is an aviation instructor, gave me some flight lessons. He even let me fly the plane for about ten minutes! (He was sitting right next to me, and for all I know it was on auto-pilot, but it sure felt like I was flying the plane!)
Soon enough we descended into Port-au-Prince. Rich circled the city once for me to take a few aerial photographs before landing. Once we landed, Haitians at the airport quickly off-loaded the supplies and numerous relief workers on the ground gathered them up.
While briefly on the ground at the Port-au-Prince airport, I met another photographer named Stacy Bourne, who originally came to Haiti as a journalist but has since stayed as a relief worker. We spoke for a bit and she told me about her plan to start a photography program for the teenagers near where she is staying. I thought it was a great idea, so I’m trying to help get the ball moving on my end. Here’s a video I shot of Stacy talking about this program.
If anyone is interested in volunteering their time to come to Haiti and help – or if you have any old digital camera gear laying around collecting dust – please shoot me an email and I’ll help get it to Stacy on the ground. I, myself, plan to go back for a spell to help her get the program started.
After no more than 30 minutes on the ground, Rich and I hopped back onto the jet and headed to another nearby town called Jacmel. We again looped around the city so I could shoot a few photos, then landed on the beat-up runway of the Jacmel Airport which was under the control of the Canadian Army.
The mission in Jacmel was to medevac four children with severe injuries: two girls with amputated left legs, a boy with a badly broken leg, and a 17-month-old child with cardiac issues.
The first thing I noticed when I hopped off the plane was an IMAX crew filming us. I’d never seen an actual IMAX camera before and it was obvious it’s quite a setup, requiring a crew of about six.
I headed into the airport where the children were waiting for us and met Dr. Katie Gollotto who lit up the room with her amazing smile and personality. She introduced me to the children and their parents and I began documenting the process of loading them onto the plane.
Again the turnaround was quick and as soon as we had them in the plane we rushed back into the air because we had to not only beat a storm cell that was headed for Florida, but we also were meeting another private jet that would be transporting the children to Philadelphia for medical treatment.
The flight back to the U.S. with the group of Haitians was truly a wonderful experience. Obviously it was most everyone’s first plane ride of their lives, so for about 3 hours they forgot about their injuries and were simply normal kids again, laughing and squealing watching the clouds roll by. At one point they all started singing.
On our decent into Ft. Lauderdale, Rich announced that he had called ahead to have four McDonald’s Happy Meals ready for the kids when we landed. Welcome to the USA!
Beyond a little turbulence we safely landed at Fort Lauderdale where we met the connecting flight (the Philadelphia Eagle’s private jet)…and the kids were on their way to Philly for treatment.
I can’t express how taken I was by the amazing people who work day-in and day-out to bring relief supplies and support to the people of Haiti. Major props to C.A.R.E. International’s Operation Haiti which has conducted over 500 flights with 2400 passengers and 700,000 pounds of critical supplies. Over 85 aircraft have been activated for the program, flying more than $4,000,000 worth of flight hours.
To all the volunteers I met and worked with during my brief stint with you, thank you for this incredible opportunity. I truly hope it is the beginning of a long relationship working together!
Here’s some video clips I took:
From The Archives: Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera – Images by Robert Caplin
This dive into the archives goes back 3 years when I was commissioned by the NY Times on a last-minute assignment to photograph Christina Aguilera during a listening session for her new CD due to release back in the summer of 2006. The CD she was releasing was titled “Back To Basics”.
My editor at The Times called me last minute to see if I could run to the Sony Studios where Ms. Aguilera was playing her new tracks for friends and executives inside the studio. I quickly called up my buddy Noah Gilbert to give me a hand lugging my gear and assisting during the shoot. We arrived at the studio as the listening session was underway. As it turned out, my editor at the NY Times had worked with Aguilera’s publicist, who didn’t get in touch with her manager, so they had no clue I was coming! I had to use my silver tongue to get just a few moments to take the portrait.
We couldn’t set up the portrait during the listening session because the large studio was packed with 40-50 friends and executives. Leather couches were strewn around the studio and dozens of candles burned while Christina played each track and talked about the songs. After about an hour of lounging in the back of the room by the catering table (yum), Noah and I had about five minutes to set up and two minutes to shoot, all while guests lingered. Needless to say it was a rush job. My first thought was to take advantage of the soundboard since we were in the fancy studio. Unfortunately, after getting my lights set up, the sound technician had turned off the entire sound system. Due to the limited time and other pressing issues, he couldn’t boot the system back up, so we had to go with the flow: a soundboard switched off! Strict ethical policies at the NY Times prohibits any digital alteration, so I’ve never Photoshoped the soundboard into the “ON” position.
This was one of the more difficult shoots I’ve done due to the chaos in the room and Christina’s surprise of having to sit for a NY Times portrait after a long presentation. Though we were rushed, I was able to pull off a couple nice shots of the Grammy Award winner. In just the few moments I had with Aguilera, it was obvious she knew how to work a camera. I think I could have a lot of fun shooting an extended session with Christina should the day ever come.
Christina, have your people call my people….
NY Times Article and layout:
James Spader on Broadway
James Spader – Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
Last week I received a New York Times assignment to shoot a portrait of James Spader for an article about his role on Broadway in a new David Mamet play called “Race”. The brief shoot took place at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in mid-town and was another one of those “set-up in advance and bang out a handful of frames with the talent” quickies.
I knew James Spader primarily from his Boston Legal television show in which he starred opposite William Shatner, but I’ve also seen a few movies where he plays eccentric characters, so I had no idea what he’d be like in real life. I found him to be one of the kindest and most willing celebrities to shoot with. I did have trouble trying to get much expression from him, but never the less I feel we had a very successful shoot.
For this particular shoot I met up with the play’s publicist who showed me around the theater, back rooms, basement, dressing rooms and I decided to choose the basement and a stairwell as the locations. With the help of my good pal and assistant, Noah Gilbert, I took some lighting tests and waited for Mr. Spader to arrive.
Once James arrived for the shoot it was very obvious he was going to be very easy to work with. When I shoot these celebrity assignments, I often bring a handful of lighting set-ups to get a variety of portrait options for my editor. I decided to bang out a few ring-light portraits while I had him near a brick wall…the first flash surprised him because of the brightness of the ring-light. At first I thought he was upset, but he quickly laughed it off and said, “It’s ok, I can handle the first act tonight seeing rings of light….anything for a good picture.”
Also, during the shoot another actor in the play came and pulled James away for a few minutes. Afterward James apologized explaining that he insists the entire cast gets weekly B-12 vitamin shots administered by his doctor to keep the cast healthy, and that was what the interruption was about. Smart idea considering the winter season and all the germs the playgoers must bring in each night. You have to be healthy to perform on Broadway.
Interesting fact I learned from James. As we were walking down to the basement to take a few more portraits, we passed an old poster for a play from nearly a half-century ago. On it was the profile of a woman and he mentioned how uncanny the resemblance was to Drew Barrymore. It took me a moment to put together that the woman in the poster was actually Ethel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore’s great-aunt, for whom the theater was named. Fancy that!
Here’s a quick snap I took with James in my basements set-up:
See the entire shoot by clicking here.
A Night Out with Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian Night Out – Images by Robert Caplin
As I mentioned in my previous post about Madeleine Albright, I’ve shot a few of these “Night Out” columns for the NY times that put a reporter and myself out for an evening chilling with a celebrity-type.
I got the assignment and was told I would be photographing Kim Kardashian….but I wasn’t exactly sure who she was. I’d heard the name on TV a few times…but since I watch all my TV on Hulu, I dont see all the reality TV that on so often. So I googled her and quickly became a little too familiar with her….
Anyhow, I met up with Kim and her sister, Chloe, the reporter and another of their friends at a hip/modern dinner spot called Delicatessen. It was a strange experience for me because I felt like I was with these celebrities who I really had no knowledge of. In fact when we left the restaurant I got scared to death by a paparazzi! Little dude scared the crap out of me! So after dinner we headed to a club called Avenue where we hung out for a spell….and that was pretty much the night….
Take a gander at the article here.
You’ll notice she was on her phone under the table twittering….this was before I really knew what the heck Twitter was….she asked my username and i didn’t even know what it was. (You can see her asking me in the third pic in the slideshow) I guess she was going to tell her fans she was hanging out with me and the reporter….I later looked at her page and saw she has over 2 million followers…dang that would have gotten some eyes on my website.
Guess what my twitter account is? @robertcaplin ….sigh
Assignment Blues… Cobalt Blues and White Sand Beaches.
Riviera Maya – Images by Robert Caplin
I’m swear I’ll get back into the swing of blogging…as for now, I thought I’d share some pics from one of my latest assignments.
I recently shot a fun assignment for the New York Times Escapes section about the Riviera Maya, the 100-mile stretch of beach that runs from Cancun south. The story is about the affordable (well at least to some) real estate in the area and to generally illustrate how beautiful the area is.
Let’s just say it wasnt a difficult assignment. 
Take a peek at the NY Times article.
And the related slideshow.
