 After graduation, he worked as a freelance photographer for "Newsday", the Associated Press, United Press International, and for "The National Sports Daily" under legendary sports photographer Neil Leifer.On August 15, 1991, Coughlin persuaded an HBO camera crew to allow him in a cherry picker for an aerial shot of an estimated crowd of 750,000 people attending a free concert by Paul Simon in New York's Central Park.Simon saw the photograph a week later in "Newsweek" and contacted Coughlin to use the image for his album and video release