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! 

Anyhow, this particular bootcamp is called The People’s Bootcamp and is led by Adam Rosante and is a “pay-what-you-can” 45-minute workout. with a warmup and cool down. He had the idea to start his own bootcamp and when researching competition and found the prices of these classes were super expensive (some topping $50/class). Adam’s philosophy is that “effective lifelong fitness should be accessible to everyone regardless of what you have in the bank.” Awesome.

I was so inspired when I visited his class for the shoot that decided to begin taking the class myself and have since been to 5 consecutive classes since my original visit. I played sports all in my adolescence through to the varsity level in high school. Since then I’ve tried to keep in shape mostly by jogging in the park on a regular basis. I’ve tried various classes (yoga/spinning/boxing) and different gyms, but they were never my cup of tea…they also they were pricy. But when I was exposed to Adam’s bootcamp it brought me back to those days in high school when I was a football player and wrestler training. I knew this was something I wanted to do. There’s something about having a coach yelling at you and the camaraderie of executing difficult tasks with classmates all going through the same agony.

So, I highly recommend Adam’s class if you’re in the NYC area…if not, look for similar classes near you…they’re great because it’ll push you to your personal max no matter your fitness level or body type.

Thanks Adam for whipping me back into shape…still a long way to go!

Years back, I was given the opportunity to visit and photograph legendary artist Chuck Close at his New York City Studio.

The shoot was for the Los Angeles Times Calendar Section cover story on Chuck. I was familiar with some of his work at the time, but didn’t know much about him personally. In 1988 he suffered a collapsed spinal artery which left him paralyzed on one side of his body. Through rehabilitation, he’s able to continue his painting, which makes his artistry that much more amazing.

I was given an address of a non-descript apartment building on a corner in SoHo and was amazed when the door opened onto a two-floor studio. Chuck’s easel, if you want to call it that, is located In the back of the studio against connected to a lift that can move the artwork up and down on the wall between the 1st floor and the basement so he can work on his paintings at eye level from his wheelchair.

I wasn’t able to take an overall shot of the setup because the piece he was working on at the time, a portrait of President Bill Clinton’s face, was embargoed. I was able to take pictures of chuck around the studio and details of the painting. Though you can see the painting and setup in the background of one of the photos.

Since the shoot I’ve become more familiar with his work and have been taking note of his work whenever I see it whether at a museum, the web, or an office building. I’ve also run into Chuck a few times over the past 7 years at various events at the MoMA and the United Nations.

Anyhow, it was a really fun experience to meet Chuck. The man is a legend!

A chuck Close painting in the JP Morgan Chase Headquarters in New York City.

]]> http://www.robertcaplin.com/2013/01/from-the-archives-legendary-artist-chuck-close/feed/ 0 http://www.robertcaplin.com/2013/01/tina-fey-and-amy-poehler/ http://www.robertcaplin.com/2013/01/tina-fey-and-amy-poehler/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:23:27 +0000 rcaplin http://www.robertcaplin.com/?p=2306

Last night I was watching the Golden Globes and just loved the two hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who kept me cracking up all night. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at a photo shoot I had with the two of them back in 2008. The assignment was a press junket for their then new movie, Baby Mama. Like with any press junket, I’m tasked with showing up to a hotel, this time the Ritz Carleton in NYC, where I’m given a room to set up and have about 10 minutes to make a photo. I arrived early and decided the couch and stairwell would be the best spot.

One of my memories of this shoot was the insane amount of publicists and handlers that accompanied them into the room. Typically celebrities have a publicist in tow, but this time I counted at least seven who were all hovering over my shoulder while I was taking the photos.

The two were very funny and super nice…of course I had to get my photo with them!

Whenever I visit my wife’s family in Barcelona, we always spend a couple of days in Vila-Sana, Catalonia with a group of friends and family in a large country house that can host all 17 of us. It’s in the nearby village of Linyola that they’re known for its living nativity scene.

Now, when I say scene, that’s a bit inaccurate. It’s more like an entire village from, well I guess around the BC/AD time, in which you’re totally immersed the people of the time. There are farmers, bread makers, craftsmen and woman, angels, devils, real farm animals, and of course the baby Jesus.

As you enter the nativity scene it’s a bit jarring the silence and the stillness of the actors who are posed, like a statue frozen in time. Occasionally you hear one of the many farm animals go BAAAA, oink oink, etc which is pretty funny. There’s also a few characters like e stone man who, though frozen in time, will slam down his axe to give kids a funny little scare…ok, he got me too.

The nativity scene takes about 20 minutes to walk through and honestly I feel like I didn’t get a chance to fully take it in. If I wasn’t with a large group I probably would’ve walked through twice.

The experience ends with some comedy too. In Catalonia there is a unique character in every nativity scene you simply don’t see elsewhere in the the world, the Caganer. Simply put, the Caganer is a man squatting down and taking a poop. His bare ass is showing and there’s even a pile of do below him, though his bare ass and poo were about the only part of the scene that weren’t real.

They take this character so seriously in Catalonia that as you exit the scene you’re confronted with the largest Caganer figurine in the world, 20ft tall with a plaque boasting its inclusion in the Guinness World Records.

Anyhow, I highly recommend the scene if you’re ever in Catalonia, you won’t be disappointed!

The shoot was for the New York Times Business Day article about the company developing a new brand for China.

The assignment was pretty strait-forward in that I was simply tasked to take a portrait of Mr Freda in the lobby which was decorated like the late Estée Lauder home. ie old school wealth.

As with any portrait of a high-profile subject, my time was limited so I arrived early to figure out a handful portrait setups.

Whenever I’m in an office building with a view, I always try to get a nice photo from the window. As I looked north from the 47th floor over Central Park, one building dominated the foreground, the Sherry Netherland Hotel. I even mentioned to the publicist how awesome it would be to have a balcony iin that building. It wasnt 24 hours later that I got a call to photograph a $95 million listing within that very building. Crazy coincidence. 

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.

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!

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

Bruce Springsteen meet-and-greet

Richie Sambora at a meet-and-greet

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Billy Crystal

Jon Bon Jovi

Billy Joel in his dressing room

Jon Stewart

Eric Clapton

Jimmy Fallon

Mick Jagger

Roger Waters

Steve Buscemi

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

Jon Bon Jovi watches and photographs The Who

Pete Townshend of The Who

Roger Daltrey of The Who

Jack McBrayer works the phone banks

Jimmy Fallon works the phone banks

Steve Buscemi works the phone banks

Billy Joel

Chris Martin

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Alicia Keys and Paul McCartney perform

Last night around 7:30 I received a call around asking if I was available to take a last-minute assignment in my neighborhood. I was told that one of the NY Times reporters had happened upon the now-famous barefoot homeless man, Jeffrey Hillman, who was given a new pair of boots by a generous NYPD officer last week. The exchange was caught on film by a tourist and the photo went viral after it was shared on the NYPD’s Facebook Page gaining hundreds of thousands of likes, shares, and comments.

Of course I had seen the photo as it was on the cover of many newspapers, magazines, and television shows worldwide. It painted a picture of generosity and sympathy for the homeless population and was great publicity for the NYPD and Officer DePrimo.

In taking the assignment, I was intrigued to meet him and see how his sudden celebrity had effected him. I was shocked, though, to find him just blocks from my apartment near one of my favorite grocery stores, Fairway Market, still standing barefoot and begging for change on the cold, dirty NYC sidewalk.

When I arrived, the NY Times reporter was already speaking with him as I approached. In the well-to-do Upper West Side neighborhood, Jeffery stuck out like a sore thumb in torn and soiled clothes that were hanging off of him. As I listened to him speak with the reporter and myself, I couldn’t help but feel a knot build up in my throat.

He explained that he’d hidden the boots because he feared they’d get stolen by other homeless if he was seen wearing them. He explained that he’d hidden them in a “safe place” somewhere outside and went on to say that there are many places one could hide objects that could never be found.

What gripped me was his genuine fear of being robbed of his possessions and the fact that he was very able to articulate those feelings to us. He was hesitant to give us his name at first or really dive into his past because he didn’t know what to make of this publicity, so it took some time to let him get familiar with me before I really started taking my photos.

He explained he’s been in NYC for about a decade, was from New Jersey, and previously was a cook in the Army where he served as a food specialist in the US and Germany. He even pulled out his tattered veteran’s card, which was hidden in a black plastic bag under his shirt by his heart, to confirm his story.

While Jeffery was being interviewed, I witnessed dozens of people walking by doing double takes as they realized he was barefoot in the cold. I could hear many of those people saying “oh that’s him!”…and maybe 4-5 people stopped to confirm it was. Some expressed concern for him and others said that he was crazy and refused to wear shoes, even offering stories about how they’d tried to help in the past to no avail, he always continued to walk barefoot and beg, and there was nothing that could be done to help him.

I was iffy about blogging about my experience because I don’t want to make it seem as though I’m exploiting a homeless man. Rather, I wanted to share with my readers the fact that folks like Jeffery need help. My hope is that someone who is in a position, perhaps with US Veterans Affairs, can step in and give Jeffery the help he needs, whether it’s food, a place to stay, or psychiatric evaluation. He is a veteran and deserves that much.

This was an experience I won’t soon forget. It made me really appreciate what I have. I hope my pictures and story do the same for you…and if you know someone that can help, please share!