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Posts from the ‘Concert’ Category

12-12-12 Sandy Relief Concert

Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi

Wednesday I had the opportunity to document the 12-12-12 Sandy Relief Concert at Madison Square Garden for The Robin Hood Foundation.

Now, I’ve photographed many concerts in my photographic career, but this one takes the cake. Not only was it the longest, starting at 7:30pm and ending at 1:30am, but it had the most star-studded lineup featuring The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Eddie Vedder, Roger Waters, Kanye West, The Who, and Paul McCartney. All the proceeds went go to the Robin Hood Relief Fund.

I was tasked with documenting the evening, everything from meet-and-greets, pre-parties, backstage, a telethon, the performances, and of course all the various branding relating to Robin Hood Foundation and the sponsors of the event.

Not only was the concert awesome, but I was simply amazed to see so many famous faces and talented individuals in one place at one time.

Enjoy just a few of my selects from the evening.

Autographed memorabilia backstage

Autographed memorabilia backstage

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen meet-and-greet

Richie Sambora

Richie Sambora at a meet-and-greet

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

Jon Bon Jovi

Billy Joel

Billy Joel in his dressing room

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon

Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Roger Waters

Roger Waters

Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

James Gandolfini

James Gandolfini and the cast of The Sopranos work the phone banks

Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi watches and photographs The Who

The Who

Pete Townshend of The Who

The Who

Roger Daltrey of The Who

Jack McBrayer

Jack McBrayer works the phone banks

Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon works the phone banks

Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi works the phone banks

Billy Joel

Billy Joel

Chris Martin

Chris Martin

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys and Paul McCartney perform

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14 Dec 2012

Bruce Springsteen Rocks The Apollo

I’ve shot a lot of concerts in my days as a news photographer….especially in 2010 when I shot 85 Justin Bieber shows (yeah, seriously) when I was touring with the kid making his book. But rarely do I shoot a single concert that makes all my (older) family members envious. Last night I shot Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for the New York Times as part of a VIP concert for Serius Satellite subscribers who were celebrating their 10 year anniversary.

I was tasked with not just shooting the show itself, but also to try and get a sense of who was attending this VIP show being held in one of the smallest venues Springsteen has played. I arrived around 6:30 to the Apollo and there was already lines of folks waiting to get in, as well as many people just loitering around in hopes of snagging a loose ticket.

I don’t come to Harlem all that often, but I think it might be safe to say that there were more white folks in their 60s than this venue sees in a month…not to stereotype a Springsteen fan…

Some of the more famous VIPs that I saw there included Michael J Fox, Tommy Hilfiger, Brian Williams, Coach Tom Coughlin, Harry Belafonte, Ben Stiller, Elvis Costello, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and a host of others who I didn’t personally know.

The set list was long and consisted of early hits and tunes from his newest album. It was my first time seeing The Boss in concert and I must say I was impressed an old white guy could rock a stage like he did.

On top of simply being a fun night at work, I got to see an old pal from the Bieber tour, Adam Courtney, who was my busmate for 6 months while I toured with Justin Bieber, and is now touring with Springsteen. Good seeing you bro.

Fun times!

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11 Mar 2012

Got Bieber Fever? New Justin Bieber Photo Book Now Available!

I was approached about six months ago by the father of an extreme Justin Bieber fan who, along with another girlfriend, had written a book entitled Got Bieber Fever? about the varying degrees of “Bieber Fever”. After discussing the project with her father and working out the arrangements with management, the book was a “go” with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Pencils of Promise, an charitable organization that raises money to build schools in the developing world. Just the first print run alone will build TWO schools! How awesome is that?

With the designing expertise of my beautiful, graphic designer-wife Laia Prats, we put together a super high-quality, coffee table-sized book of my photos and their story.

If you’re interested in more details about how this book came about, you can download the press release or check out the article in the San Francisco Chronicle!

The book is available on Amazon for $17.95 and includes an amazing, oversized, glossy, fold-out poster behind the dust jacket (below), alone worth the price of the book! Get your copy today and support an amazing charity!

18 Dec 2011

On the Road with Justin Bieber

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.

9 Aug 2010

Justin Bieber LIVE on TODAY Show

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

4 Jun 2010