Every so often I’ll make a personal call and connect with someone I see on TV or the web, someone who I think is a really interesting person and I’d like to get to know a little more. First time I did this was with my friend Casey Neistat, a filmmaker I became familiar with after watching his HBO show “The Neistat Brothers“. I really took a liking to his personality and storytelling. We’ve since become friends, worked together, and I’ve become even more acquainted with his youngest brother, Dean, who is an actor, stuntman, and photographer himself.

Casey Neistat

Casey Neistat

What I found interesting about Casey was the fact that he had a fresh way of telling stories about his life while incorporating all sorts of social media into what he does. In addition to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, he’s recently begun using the medium Snapchat to tell quick and dirty stories through his iPhone. Through his new Snapchat YouTube page I noticed he was friends with Jerome Jarre, another fella who I’ve been following through another app, Vine, where users post 6-second looping videos. So I asked Casey to introduce us.

Jerome is super popular on Vine with about 7 million followers and over 560 million loops of his Vine videos…that’s over a HALF BILLION plays… His short videos are simply hilarious and often over-the-top. With a thick French accent he takes to Union Square, a park near his apartment, to surprise unsuspecting tourists, locals, and nappers with jokes, songs, and utter randomness. As I scrolled through his profile page I found he’s even gotten the likes of Robert DeNiro, Pharell Williams, and Ansel Elgort to be in his Vines. He’s become so popular that he covered the Oscars red carpet for the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

We met at Jerome’s apartment before taking a walk through the city. We started in Union Square where I took a few portraits before he started getting mobbed by random fans, 99% teenage girls, asking to take photos with him, hugging him, and generally in awe of his presence. I asked him how it feels to have this sort of recognition and he admitted that it feels good. He explained that his followers feel close to him because they watch him wherever they are; school, work, before going to bed at night…

We eventually made our way down to Washington Square Park near one of my first NYC apartments to take a few more portraits. While we were there we met an artist who Jerome took interest in, made a connection, and perhaps they’ll work together someday in the future. That’s what’s great about living in NYC…you never know what sort of connection you’ll make or where it will lead.

It’s amazing to me that forms of communication like this exist. At the ripe age of 24, he’s carved out a career spreading joy and creating content in his unique way. The future is bright for Jerome…and I hope to document where life takes him in the future.

It’s not every day you get to be part of a historic event like the one I had the honor to document this past weekend for Sports Illustrated. I got a call from my good friend Brad Smith, Director of Photography at Sports Illustrated asking me to stop by his office to discuss an ambitious project they were working on for the one year anniversary cover of the Boston Marathon bombing. On top of being involved in this over-the-top production, I was able to meet and work with a legendary portrait photographer who was hired to take the cover photo, Gregory Heisler. He’s shot over 70 covers for TIME Magazine, among many more publications. He’s also recently put out his first book, 50 Portraits, which showcase some of his most memorable portraits from the past few decades.

The idea was to photograph the mayor of Boston, along with thousands of Bostonians, wearing Boston sports colors and outfits, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the site of the tragic bombings one year prior. I know the whole Sports Illustrated team worked very hard to make such an event take place, especially the effort of Brad Smith should be commended. He personally made multiple trips to Boston to convince the mayor to shut down a busy city block for the morning and dealt with all the bureaucratic red tape. In addition, safety was a concern, so there was a noticeable police presence along with bomb-sniffing dogs. Safety was paramount.

The press release went out during the week prior to all Bostonians to show up at the finish line starting at 7AM for the 8AM arrival of the mayor. To our surprise there were already people lined up before 6AM when we arrived! I was tasked with making a time-lapse of the scene and documenting the entire process from a behind-the-scenes point of view.

The whole experience truly felt like a sporting event, as if the marathon was actually happening around us. The amazing thing was that we, the Sports Illustrated team, WERE the event! There was an estimated 3,000 Bostonians who showed up and packed tightly into the single city block. Everyone from survivors, first responders, organizers, firefighters, police officers, EMS, residents, their pets, and even the Boston RedSox World Series Trophy showed up for the shoot!

Gregory took the amazing cover photo while in a massive lift about 10 feet above the front of the crowd using a super-sharp Canon 17mm tilt/shift lens on a Canon 5D Mark III body. One of the things I love the most about Gregory’s work is how he uses light so subtly so that it feels like natural light. The entire street was in open shade, but he used a few strobes with an amber gel to subtly throw warm light across parts of the crowd making it seem like beautiful morning sunlight.

One trait of a talented photographer, beyond technical and creative ability, is how they interact with their subjects. It’s something that makes the best of the best stand out. Gregory got up in the lift and addressed the crowd of 3,000+ with a megaphone telling them how honored and excited he was to be given the privilege of photographing all the beautiful people. He made jokes and immediately lightened the mood causing laughter and cheer. It’s these sorts of traits that I will take with me in my own work and it’s something Gregory and I talk about in our recent podcast.

After about 10 minutes of actual shooting, it was all over and everyone dispersed back into the city. The group of people who showed up couldn’t have been better. There were zero incidents and after the shoot was complete we were amazed to see the streets completely clear of trash…almost unimaginable!

Thank you to Brad Smith and all of the Sports Illustrated team for allowing me to be part of this epic photo shoot. And thanks to the people of Boston for the inspiration showing your amazing resilience. This shoot will truly go in the record books!

Earlier this month I covered the 2013 ING New York City Marathon for the NY Times. It was nice to cover the official race again as last year it was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. This year I was assigned to cover the 1-mile stretch of the course in The Bronx at about Mile-20 as runners crossed the Willis Avenue Bridge from 1st Avenue in Manhattan and back over the Madison Ave Bridge into Manhattan.

It was clear security was much heavier this year as the course was guarded from blocks away from the actual course. Luckily, I was on a scooter and was able to snake through the snarled NYC traffic. I parked my scooter near the Madison Avenue Bridge and walked across the bridge into The Bronx. As it turned out I’d arrived quite early as I had to wait about an hour for the leaders to pass.

It was fun to chat with and see all the various supporters from local cheerleaders, a Japanese drumming team, bands, firefighters, and local residents cheer on the runners as they passed.

I made my way to the Willis Avenue Bridge and eventually spotted a building that gave me a great vantage point to make an overall shot and transmit my photos to the paper. It was worth the hike to the roof as the photo quickly made it to the NYTimes.com homepage!

I made my way back to my scooter over the first bridge and got back home to the Upper West Side where I transmitted once more before hitting Central Park as evening approached. I entered the park around 90th Street and walked toward the finish line at around 67th Street. As I made my way closer I was swarmed by Marathon finishers attempting to find their belongings and way out of the park.

One of my favorite parts of covering the Marathon is seeing the runners cross the finish line as it’s a very emotional moment for them. Overall, I had a great time covering this year’s race!

Why? Well it’s because this wasn’t just any runway show, it was Project Subway. As in Subway sandwiches as part of a marketing campaign.

The basics were this….Subway had four designers compete in a challenge, like they do in the TV show Project Runway. The designers could only use accessories from a subway restaurant that were provided; napkins, plastic bags, plastic salad bowls, cups, and basic accessories mostly branded with the Subway logo.

I photographed backstage as the models and designers were getting ready for the runway show and was impressed with what they were able to make out of these materials.

After the show guest judges including Scary Spice rated the looks with a score of 1-5 footlong subs. #nom

After a tie, the one and only Jared, subway’s spokesman who lost 245 pounds on a subway diet voted and Danilo Gabrielli was declared the victor.

He won a years worth of Subway sandwiches…and of course the opportunity to have a show at New York Fashion Week.

I’m a lucky guy, I’ll admit that. I married a beautiful Catalan girl and regular travel to her hometown of Barcelona is a perk of the job!

We’re always trying to visit at different times of the year to experience all the city has to offer. Our previous trip was during the holidays, and our current trip during August is quite different.  Barcelona in August is much emptier than anytime of the year as most of the locals take their summer holidays outside the city at the beach or in the mountains. Not only is the temperature drastically warmer, but there always to be some sort of traditional Catalan festivals taking place during each of our visits and this trip was no exception.

First there was a week-long festival in the Barcelona neighborhood of Gracia where the locals decorate their narrow streets into various-themed experiences. Residents work on the decorations year-round in much the same way as a group might build a large parade float. The various blocks within the neighborhood compete against each-other and are judged by local officials. In addition to street decorations, there are stages built for music and dancing, outdoor bars, fire runners called Correfocs, and Castellers who are those folks who build human towers.

The Castellers were pretty amazing to watch. Being the photojournalist, I jumped right into the mix and documented everyone preparing to build their human towers. There’s a lot of skill and concentration needed to build these towers as you could imagine. Everyone wears matching shirts and a cloth wrap around their stomaches and backs which allow the climbers a place to grip their hands and feet as they move up the tower. First there’s a massive base built that all the largest people create by smashing themselves together. Then the lighter castellers begin climbing on top of the base and building the structure. As the tower gets taller the smaller and younger the castellers get. In fact, the person who climbs to the peak of the tower, called the “enxaneta”, is always a tiny boy or girl between 5-10 years old!

It was really fun to watch all these people work. Their camaraderie, patience, and strength was obvious and the emotions they showed after successfully building and disassembling the towers was evident. In fact, the group of blue castellers had just completed their 100th 8-story human tower, so there was extra celebration and excitement.

Because my wife and I are always on the move visiting her family and taking various excursions around Europe, we only experienced a small portion of these festivities, but they were truly exciting and memorable experiences to say the least!

Lastly, we visited the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona last night (Barri Gòtic) that was ending their week-long festival with correfocs (fire runners dressed as devils) parading through he square and narrow streets. This was 424th year in a row for this particular festival. When we arrived to the area we found the correfocs gathered in the main square called Plaça de la Catedral accompanied by a group of drummers and surrounded by spectators. Quickly the all lined up and had their fireworks atop their pitchforks ignited  and began running around the square shooting their sparks into the crowds.

They proceeded to march down the narrow streets led by a large dragon with fire shooting out of it’s mouth. There was nothing quiet about this parade as people were yelling, drummers were drumming, and the fireworks were spinning and popping. Fortunately I’d thought ahead and wore earplugs. I learned my lesson after shooting 85+ Bieber concerts years back!

Anyhow, I’ve found there’s always something fun to do and see when visiting Barcelona. While I’ve enjoyed all my previous visits, I think this trip is the most memorable in terms of zany festivals. I’d highly recommend a trip to Barcelona in August!

¡Visca Catalunya!

My wife, Laia, told me last week that she really wanted to attend the Coney Island Mermaid Parade this year. She’d been to it twice before, once with her family who were visiting from Barcelona and another when I had just started on tour with Justin Bieber, both times I was unfortunately unable to attend. Coney Island is a place I rarely get to, so it was a nice change of pace to zip out to the beach on my scooter with Laia today.

I’m not sure what to say about the parade other than it’s Coney Island’s official start of summer, it has a Mardi Gras feel to it with dancing, some brass bands, and lots of people dressed in ocean-themed outfits. Oh, there’s a fair amount of boobs too. Lots of these outfits are made entirely out of body paint, so there’s some partial nudity.

We arrived before the parade started and walked around, ate some hotdogs, and scouted out locations to shoot. We bounced around from the start and finish and decided to hang out for a while at the end in hopes some participants would peel off and head to the beach. They did, which was nice because it gave me an excuse to get into the water a bit. It was super hot and the sun was taking a toll. Laia and I got a lot of sun today.

We decided to call it a day pretty soon after as we had another 1+ hour ride on our little scooter. Coney Island is the farthest we’ve brought our little bike. Another fun day in NYC! My photos are in the order they were taken.

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.

I keep up in the news, so I was very aware of their collective and the prison sentences some of them are serving for their recent unauthorized provocative guerrilla performance inside a church to protest of the Orthodox Church leader’s support for Putin during his election campaign. After playing only for 40 seconds before security guards stopped them, three ended up being charged with hooliganism and sentenced to prison and two fled Russia to avoid prosecution.

This shoot was different from most for a number of reasons. First, my subjects were anonymous as the group members wear brightly colored balaclavas and use only nicknames during interviews. I was photographing Fara and Shaiba. When asked who was who, one responded, “It doesn’t matter”.

When I arrived, the two small girls were unmasked and very warm to myself and the writer.  They were crashing, at least temporarily, at someone’s home prior to the premiere of their HBO documentary at a nearby theater, which they ended up attended unmasked in secret. What an experience to have to sneak into their own premiere.

I was told by one of their handlers that it was imperative that we not photograph their faces because the Russian government was after them. At the beginning of the shoot, they only wanted me to photograph them while masked inside the elevator of the building. Because that seemed very limited, I asked if we could try quickly taking their portrait, masked, at street level, but they didn’t want to risk causing a scene on the street and getting tracked, especially since their documentary premiere was just a few blocks away. There’s a good chance they’d be recognized and cause a scene.

I ended up scouting the stairwell of the building where, at the top, I found a ladder to the roof of the building. I pitched the idea of climbing up to the roof so we could photograph them outside in the golden light. They liked the idea, so we climbed up and made some really cool images.

I really had a fun time with this shoot. The secretive nature of the shoot was exciting and it felt like I was part of something somewhat historical. Good times!

A rendering of 432 Park Avenue, an 84-story tower. (Credit: dbox for CIM Group & Macklowe Properties)

For this particular assignment I was called the night before, which is unusual for the NY Times to give me so much notice. Typically I’ll get an early AM call to run out and cover a story happening within the hour. As with most other assignments, I was able to do a little extra research about Mr. Macklowe and found he’s quite an impressive person. One of the most striking achievements, in my opinion, was when he purchased the General Motors (GM) Building for a record $1.4 billion, then personally pitched to Steve Jobs the concept of the underground, glass-roofed, Fifth Avenue Apple store underneath the building’s plaza, which did it’s part to double the building’s price. Amazing.

Instagram I took of the GM Building reflected against the Apples Store last year.

Anyhow, not knowing how accommodating Harry would be, I was envisioning a quick portrait of him out in front of the property. When I arrived, I was happy to find Mr Macklowe extremely accommodating and eager to take the time to accomplish an unexpected portrait. We even started talking about photography as I found he’s a lover of photography and a big art collector.

We started the shoot out front where I made the images I’d originally envisioned. Then I started discussing my idea of placing Mr Macklowe onto the 2nd story window frame outside the edifice of the building, which was a 10-story shell at the time. From a distance it looked pretty simple, but as we walked deeper into the construction site, we realized the only way to get him into the position was to find a mechanical lift to hoist him up to the second story level from street level.

While we waited for the site boss to roundup the lift, Harry walked around the site to evaluate progress. One thing I found to be really rewarding was to see was the genuine smiles on both Mr Macklowe’s face and the faces of all the workers as they spotted him. Many came up to me asking if it was indeed the man funding the project. When I confirmed, they all wanted to shake hands with him because they were so happy to be working in this tough economy. Harry was extremely kind and shook hands with all who came up to him for a quick word. It’s nice to see someone is creating jobs and likewise to see those workers showing their appreciation. That’s a good thing.

Not only did I get a great variety of solid portraits from Harry, I was also able to do what I love most: document the lives of my subjects. Mr Macklowe won me over that morning, along with a number of construction workers.

This particular restaurant, Jeepney, was really cool…and like many NYC restaurants, was very tight. I shot my usual interiors, exteriors, and was set up at a table in the back to document various dishes the critic asked me to shoot. They brought out adobo chicken wings, a dish of pancit malabok negra, Bulalo, a short-rib and vegetable soup with a marrow bone riding on top, and finally the balut: a hard-boiled duck egg with a fertilized duck embryo encased inside.

I’ve never seen anything quite like balut, so in order to take proper photos, the owner gave me a demonstration how the hard boiled egg is served and how it’s cracked and eaten. After cracking open the large hard-boiled egg with a fork, she dug within the yellow yolky interior and came out with fertilized duck embryo (I’ll call it a fetus).

At that point she asked if I’d like to try the balut. Ok, sometimes I find it hard to turn down an offer to taste the food at these sort of assignments…but I had no problem respectfully declining this particular offer…

Anyhow, the balut may not be my cup of tea, but I’d definitely come back for one of their other great dishes on the menu! Fun place!