I recently had the opportunity to visit the set of the The Gayle King Show (Oprah’s BFF) for a profile piece in the New York Times.

Thus far in my career, I’ve found shooting on television or movie sets to be an exciting and rewarding experience. I love seeing all the work that goes into producing television and film. Learning how all the different people on and off set work together to make TV is almost magical. It’s actually pretty intense, especially on this particular set because her show is LIVE and there’s no room for mistakes!

I feel the most in my element when I’m allowed to float around a room and simply document what’s happening around me….and this assignment was just that. I obviously had to be aware of not getting in the way, but Gayle’s crew was very welcoming to me and let me float all around.

As it turned out, Gayle had some cool guests that day on the show. First was host of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams, and second was the music and fashion sensation Lady Gaga….freshly hatched from her egg at The Grammy’s.

I’ve always enjoyed newsman Brian Williams because behind the stern anchor, he’s actually very funny….I’ve seen him on many talk shows hamming it up as well as his comical cameos on NBC’s 30 Rock.

The only time I was asked not to take photos on set was for 1 minute as Lady Gaga came out to the set. Gayle thought it would be funny to strip to her undergarments and stand on a pedestal to get a reaction out of Gaga as part of a personal joke in honor of Lady Gaga’s unclothed interview on “60 Minutes.”….and it was pretty funny, I must say….unfortunately I don’t have photos of that!

Anyhow, Gaga came out wearing 10″+ platform shoes, a shoulder-less, leather outfit (for lack of a better word) while sporting faux, pointy, alien-like shoulders with spikes on her face and a large, egg-shaped hairdo. She was quite a site….though I wasn’t surprised as the last time I ran into her she was wearing a dress made of meat at the VMAs.

So yes, it was quite an experience. Gayle was super kind and chatted with me about my photos in the Justin Bieber book, who had recently been a guest on her show.

I was impressed with Gayle’s kindness and professionalism on set. Her team all worked well together and made me feel very welcomed. It was fun to run into Gayle a week or so later at the United Nations for a movie premiere I was covering. She remembered me and reminded me to send her the Bieber book….I delivered it the next day!

See more photos of Gayle King, Lady Gaga, and Brian Williams in my archives.

Gayle King Show – Blog – Images by Robert Caplin

What a ride I’ve been on.  Literally.

Many of you may have noticed my lack of blogging in the past two months.  If you haven’t been keeping up with me on Facebook or Twitter, it’ll come as a surprise that I’ve been on tour with the one and only Justin Bieber documenting every facet of his life on his first headlining North American tour.

If you recall, last December I had my first encounter with Justin while shooting an assignment for the New York Times.  It was at that point I realized I had documented something pretty special as he played Madison Square Garden for the first time.

Long story short, after the assignment, I put together a prototype book with the help of my fabulous designer Laia Prats, and proposed a Justin Bieber documentary to his management (at the TODAY Show) and a number of publishing houses.  After a few months of hustle and luck, I was told to meet up with Justin and company in Nassau, Bahamas where he was performing at the Atlantis Resort.  That was in mid-June….and I’ve been on the road with him ever since.

The bus tour has taken me all across America from the east coast to the west and as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Texas.  Soon we’ll be traversing Canada, Justin’s homeland, eh?

So what’s happening with my pictures?  Many things!

First and foremost, Harper-Collins is publishing an illustrated book with about 150 of my photos along with text written by Justin himself talking about his transition from a normal kid to international social media celebrity and touring music sensation.  The book is hitting the presses very soon and will be on bookshelves worldwide beginning in October.

Beyond the book, I’m creating an exclusive archive of Justin at every one of his 80+ North American shows both on-stage and off.  Those photos will be released in some new and exciting ways to his fans and media.  More to come soon on all that!

I’ll be on tour until at least the end of his North American tour, which ends in early January 2011.  Rumor has it a world tour is in the works!  Until then, the best way to keep up with me is through Facebook and Twitter.

I hope to continue blogging from the road, so if you all have any questions or blogging requests, please let me know and I’ll try to answer them as the tour goes on.

Thanks for all your support!  I’m really excited to see what comes of all this.

This morning I covered Justin Bieber’s appearance on NBC’s TODAY Show in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

I had to arrive at the crack of dawn to wait, along with hoards of other press, while enduring the shrieks of Bieber’s diehard tween fans. I was in need of an Aspirin after this shoot. If headache is a symptom of Bieber Fever….I can certainly say I caught a case of it listening to them scream!

I quickly found that the press riser where many of the celebrity photographers lined up to shoot was not a viable option for me as I would’ve been crammed behind 40 other photographers. So I opted to shoot from the rear of the stage where nobody was shooting from. I really lucked out because I was able to pull off some nice frames shooting through the crazy fans. I like to stray from the pack and get something different….at least my photographs are unique versus everyone shooting from the riser getting the same canned shots.

I was also able to give Justin and his manager my prototype books containing the images from my all-access coverage at the Z100 JingleBall and they very much liked it, which made me quite happy. Perhaps a new project in the works!

Here’s the source of the headache:

Take a peek at a slideshow Justin Bieber’s TODAY Show concert.

Justin Bieber TODAY Show Concert – Images by Robert Caplin