Posts from the ‘travel’ Category
Festes, Correfocs i Castellers!
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!
The Three Kings Parade in Barcelona
Last Saturday I had an unexpectedly fun experience when I attended the Barcelona Three Kings Parade with my wife and her family. The Three Kings Day isn’t a holiday I’d ever heard of before marrying Laia, but for those of you who don’t know, the tradition is somewhat like Christmas, in that children write a letter to old, bearded men who then sneak into their homes and leave gifts for them. Kind of creepy now that I think about it.
Anyhow, the Three Kings Day takes place Jan 6 in most Spanish speaking cultures. As the story goes, the kings come from the Orient on their camels just to bring presents for youngsters. In Barcelona they arrive by boat in the Barcelona harbor, where they give a speech with the mayor of the city, and then are transported by fancy old cars to the start of the parade route, which is quite extensive and runs all throughout the city.
I was able to witness the boat coming into port along with the masses of children and their parents. I missed the speech, but was able to catch a glimpse of the kings as they departed in their fancy cars flanked by horse-bound police officers. Many of the various characters whom are part of the parade also preceded the kings as they set off for the start of the parade.
I’ve seen the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC a number of times as I live in the neighborhood in which that parade starts and I’d have to say the Barcelona Three Kings Parade gives it a run for it’s money, but without all the massive balloons. Unlike the Thanksgiving parade, the Kings parade is entirely set around a theme of “Hey kids, did you write the letters? The kings are coming! Go to sleep, it’s bedtime!”
The streets were jammed packed with exhilarated kids and equally trilled parents excited to share this tradition with their young ones. Barcelona is a city with many multi-story apartments, most of which have balconies. Adults and kids alike were in nearly every window as the parade made its way down the streets. Many residents with the higher balconies provided homemade confetti and kept a constant flurry streaming from above. Those who didn’t have confetti just threw rolls of toilet paper which became streamers coming from the sky.
The entire parade lasted about an hour and consisted of monster floats, the biggest being those that carried the kings. There were also bands and buses and horses and, my favorite, many characters with baskets either tethered to their backs or on long polls that could be reached out into crowds to collect last minute letters written by children to the kings listing all the presents they desired.
If you ever find yourself in Barcelona during this holiday, I recommend attending, especially with children. It’s worth the wait and fun for adults too.
2012 Filtered – Instagram Year In Review
With 2012 coming to an end, I thought it’d be fun to take a look back through all those iPhone photos I took and posted to Instagram over the past year. It was a daunting task to wade through over 1000 photos and narrow it down to the 60 I’m presenting here because every snap was a great memory. I saw many trends in my mobile pictures, the most prevalent were those of my cat, snaps in my picturesque backyard of Central Park, pics taken from windows of the various offices I visited for portrait shoots, and many taken from my window seat on my various flights around the world. If 2013 is only half as awesome as 2012, I’ll be a happy man. Let’s hope Instagram clarifies their terms of service so I can continue sharing my photos with you all through the platform!
If you don’t already follow my feed, you can do so from my Instagram homepage! Here’s to all of you and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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.
‘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!
A week with Team USA Soccer in Salt Lake and Trinidad
US Soccer – Images by Robert Caplin
October turned out to be one crazy month involving quite a bit of traveling.
I was commissioned to shoot a documentary assignment for ESPN The Magazine to photograph the US Soccer team in their quest to make it into the upcoming 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa. The assignment was to generally hang out with the team at practices and hotels prior to and during two qualifying matches, the first of which against El Salvador held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The following day I hopped on a jet AND followed the team to their next game against Trinidad & Tobago way down in the Caribbean. I cant complain about that!
Though I was afforded better access than most to the team, I still was very limited. I was given only the first 15/20 minutes of practices and the normal press access during games. I worked with the team’s publicist to photograph them hanging out in the hotel, loading onto and off of the bus, as I was also staying at the same hotel.
Beyond working, the highlights of the trip including visiting my pal and fellow photographer Chris Detrick at his home in Salt Lake and firing up the BBQ. Also, down in the Caribbean I was able to spend the day prior to the soccer match buzzing through the windy mountainous roads to the exquisite beaches in Trinidad. I also had the opportunity to try Shark and Bake (fried shark sandwich), which is apparently is the national dish of Trinidad. It was alright. 
Check out the rest of the archives from Slat Lake and Trinidad.
Here’s how the spread ran in ESPN The Magazine:
Soccer Layouts – Images by Robert Caplin
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.
“Weekend” Column Comes to a Close
Over the past 2-3 years I’ve had the good fortune to work regularly with the NY Times Travel Section and writer Seth Kugel for his weekly column “Weekend In New York”. Seth decided to give up the column to set up shop in Brazil and try something new.
In today’s Sunday NY Times is Seth’s final Weekend column and I found working on it bittersweet. The column’s purpose was to give readers a themed itinerary of things to do if they visited to NYC for a weekend. Everything ranging from the best bakeries to ethnic themed adventures. The column regularly brought me to very cool hidden NYC bars, restaurants, specialty shops, tourist sites, vast cemeteries, sailing, and so on.
The final Weekend column which is in today’s paper, it was an ode to the column’s writer Seth Kugel. He reminisced on his 15 years living in the Big Apple and how even he, a reporter paid to explore and experience the city, has not even come close to experiencing all NYC has to offer.
For the first time working on the column, I was given a handful of days to photograph the finale which had Seth checking out and doing those activities he’s always wanted to do, but never ended up having the chance. This ended up having us waiting in line outside at David Letterman, at mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, to the Opera, chowing down of expensive steak at the world-renowned Peter Lugar’s Steakhouse, taking in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and jogging through Central Park.
As I look back, I realize I got to be Seth’s eyes and really get a explore my city….I LOVE NYC!
Some favorites:
To the Trained Eye, Museum Pieces Lurk Everywhere
From the Days When New York Was Actually New
People-Watching: Here’s Looking at You
You May Now Kiss the Clerk
From Bi Bim Bop to a Huge Spa
Where River Views Are From the River
You Can Come and Go. They’re Staying Awhile.
Check out a whole slue of the columns I worked on here.
Seth snagged this shot of me shooting for THIS column
Seth shows up to my apartment unannounced with sweets purchased from bakeries all over the city for THIS assignment. That was a nice surprise!
Athens Messenger runs Cuba Article
My hometown paper in Athens, Ohio ran my article about my trip to Havana, Cuba in their most recent Sunday edition. To read the article you can read the original article on Sports Shooter or take a look at my first blog post.
