Last week I got a call from the New York Times asking me to photograph Darren Criss, the breakout star of the Fox high school musical series “Glee”, to accompany a story about his upcoming Broadway debut in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

One of the things I love about my job is the unexpected assignments I receive usually on a moment’s notice. This time my editor called around 5PM to schedule a shoot later in the evening on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at an old-school diner near Darren’s apartment. It happened to be very cold that night, so I opted to take a few pictures inside the diner so we could first warm up a bit.

I met the reporter, Patrick Healey, and soon after Darren arrived joyful with a big grin. It’s always nice to work with someone who is very upbeat and talkative. Darren, Patrick, and I had a hot tea to warm up and chatted a bit before I started shooting.

When I have celebrity shoots, I always try to arrive a bit in advance to scout the area for nice portrait locations because often I have little time with those subjects. I’m always looking for quality light sources, as I prefer to take naturally lit portraits as often as possible. I love documentary photography and I suppose shooting natural light is my way of merging the two genres of photography.

After capturing a few portraits of him enjoying a ice cream sundae at the bar in the diner, we walked outside and up the block to a bank of pay phones I’d scouted earlier. I liked the nostalgia of a pay phone, but what really drew me was the light from the adjacent Apple Store spilling directly into the booths.

I hope I cross paths Darren again in the future…until then, break a leg on Broadway!

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!

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.

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

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!