Rick Allen called for a chat earlier this evening. I'll be working with Def Lep in Nashville shortly for a CMT show they're going to be doing. Looking forward to being somewhere a little cooler for a few days, the heat here in Texas has been bothering me recently. I miss seasons.

For those of you Def Leppard fans that don't know yet, the news is finally out about Rick and he wanted this place to be the first to show you. Truth is, he's not human at all, he's an android drum machine sent from the future to rock your world.... Go figure......

"THE ALLENATOR"

Headed up to San Antonio today for a quick endorsement shoot for EMG. This one was with Rich and Chuck who play guitar and Bass in Toby Keiths band. Really nice guys, easy to work with and fun to talk to. I wish every job was as straight forward as this one. The only challenge of today was the heat which was 110 degree heat index and finding power outlets to power my strobes. Sat the guys on a grass bank outside near catering and did our thing. Chuck said the venue staff killed a rattlesnake there earlier in the day so we were watching out! Pics came out good though so the sweat and sunburn were worth it. Sat down in the dressing room after the shoot with the guys and had them pick out the ones they liked best. I didn't even have to stay and shoot the show so I was back home by 8pm which made a nice change.
  
  

Wake up early after a surprisingly good nights sleep. Head on down and grab a hearty breakfast that a Lumberjack would be proud of. The gift shop to the hotel is open..... HA! Run in and ask the lady in there if she sells Mars Bars. I realize then that I must have looked like an excited five year old asking her. She kindly points to the Holy Grail of chocolate and I buy five of them. One is gone already by the time the elevator reaches the 11th floor and a second is opened by the time my room door closes. Grab my gear and head downstairs and Daniel meets me and helps load the gear into his truck. Stop off for a Starbucks and then he tells me we're heading off up the road to Whistler and towards the Rockies. Vancouver seems like a nice place. It certainly has a nice vibe and the Canucks seem a lot more laid back than their uptight city dwelling American counterparts. I think it's the fresh air that does it.

As we get up in elevation the views get more spectacular along highway 99 along Horseshoe Bay and Howe Sound. Anvil Island sits out in the middle of the water looking beautiful. As we go along we start looking out for good locations to shoot Daniel in the great outdoors. He stops the truck at a place called Furry Creek and looks at me waiting for the filthy comments to start....... The bugger knows me! Hehehe... Of course I don't want to be a bad guest and disappoint my most generous host so I start the mucky commentary about Furry Creek and he does his best to join in. A little further up the mountains we get to a place name "Squamish" which I predictably rename "Squeamish". We see a big river running alongside the road and decide to take a side country road and see if we can find a turn off and trail to the river. Further down we're on a trail road and are thinking of getting out when we see a bloody great Black Bear run across the trail in front of us... It was an adolescent bear which meant that Mama was around. This means that you stand a very good chance of being gnawed on by Mama so we let our asses stop twitching and decide to move on to safer locales.
 


We eventually find a trail down to a beautiful section of clear and very cold river that's fed from glacial flow. We grab the gear. Danny boy helps me carry a big heavy box of lights down the trail to the waters edge and has a whine about his hands hurting......... if he had to play drums and really use his hands he'd really be in trouble....hehehe..... As we're going down the trail there are several old male and female fogeys in front of us heading down to a bend in the river hidden by a bunch of reeds and shrubs.. One is carrying booze, one food, and the others firewood.... We both have a chuckle about the old dudes getting trashed by the rivers edge, think nothing of it and head downstream and set up and proceed to do the photo session. Shoot Daniel sitting on a rock at the waters edge, with a beautiful orange Drum Workshop snare drum and then his Regal Tip sticks. I set up a little rock platform to squat on whilst I shoot him and his wonderous soul patch in various poses etc. It's not until I get the shots up on the laptop later that realize just how beautiful the scenery is. You kind of get caught in the moment of the shoot and have tunnel vision of a sort when you're focusing on the job at hand. I have to go back and do some landscapes there though...



Get done with the shoot and we fart around and take some silly pics and video then we pack up and head back to the truck. The wind has gotten up and we walk right by the bushy area the old folks are behind. Their fire is putting out some great smoke we notice and we hear them laughing etc. Not until we walk right by and see through the gaps in the foliage do we notice that they're all completely frickin' naked! It's a veritable drunk pink wrinkle fest behind the bushes!!! We have a good chuckle about the nudists and head on up the road further into the mountains. Stop at an absolutely amazing scenic overlook with snow capped mountains in the background. Set up a light and get Daniel up standing on a stone wall with the amazing backdrop. A couple of girls come over to see what's going on and they recognize Daniel so I grab a shot of them together then we finish up the shoot and head back down the road.

By this time we're feeling rather esurient. Daniel pulls off at a place called Tim Hortons and tells me I have to try their great coffee and sandwiches. We go inside and Daniel order me a coffee called a "Double Double" and a BLT sandwich that beats the ass off any Subway sandwich I've had. What's hilarious is that there can't be a single member of staff over about 15 years old in the whole place. Daniel laughs and says he has a creepy oomph Loompah feeling but what's even scarier is that they have their crap together and are running the place like clockwork! You ask an American kid of 14 to do that and they'd be LOST! Too funny!

We head back nearer into Vancouver and nearer to Daniels home and find a railway track that runs between a forest. Shoot him in between the tracks running and doing his kung fu moves in mid air. The pics come out really good and we have a great laugh in the process not to mention the laughs we have singing alternative and filthy lyrics to Nickelback songs. I have video that I'll post when I can but don't expect to hear those "special lyrics"...hehehehehe.....

We get back to the house and set up and shoot him in his home studio in the basement. A really neat drum room that has free floating insulated walls to soundproof everything. Anyway, we get a load of playing shots on the drums etc and head out to dinner along with his lovely missus Britney. A few Guinness later and I'm previewing the pics on my laptop at dinner..... Can't wait to show you the pics when the magazine hit's the shelves!!