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!!         

Looks like there's another bloody hurricane out in the gulf once again. Living on the coast can be perilous at times but being inland can suck just as equally what with quakes and tornados. At least we can see hurricanes coming and have some warning I guess but the results can be just as dangerous and destructive. As It looks today ol' Gustav seems to be heading towards the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico so Texas may yet be spared albeit at the expense of some other poor sods. We shall see.

Once again the raspy tongue returned this time to my forehead and wouldn't let me sleep in. She'd already been fed so she was doing this out of pure boredom.... Today I am going to Vancouver... EH? Vancouver, yes Canada... I've had all my shots and did a quick refresher course in colonial ways. It'll be nice to see some hills and mountains again. The only bumps in the earth that I've seen recently was a bad boob job at the grocery store last week. I'm off to see my old mate Daniel.... drummer extraordinaire for rock sensations Nickelback. Now Daniel is a man who truly appreciates the filth of my limericks and humor although I'll tell you that he enjoys it whilst still on guard.... hehehehe... I think he's not sure of what will happen and is a little scared of what I'll do or say next.....Poor Lad! A most capable sticksman and dashingly handsome chap with a legendary soul patch that's admired by oodles of male fans everywhere.

So I get to the airport and they put me on an earlier connecting flight to Dallas which I happily accept as spending time at my local airport is about as much fun as rubbing ones particulars with a rusty cheese grater. Get to security where I'm asked to step aside as I've been chosen for a random security check and pat down. I don't get the nice brunette for the pat down though, I get the sweaty chubby bugger with the rubber gloves who takes his sweet time with the wand and patting me down with his sausage fingers. He finally finishes and they call me over as they open my camera bag. The young girl opens my bag, and turns to me "are you a photographer?" she asks. Inside are two cameras, four lenses, two flashes, three remote flash triggers, cleaning cloths and a small compact digital camera. I reply that I'm a Gynacologist, smile and wait for her response. I may be wrong but I think that my accent convinced her that I actually was a gyno... Smashing!



Get to the airport in Dallas, grab some lunch and an ale, thank some soldiers being deployed for their service and head to the departure gate. The flight is late...... No plane......the plane arrives an hour late....the flight crew arrive from another flight another hour late.... We're over two hours late, crammed in I have some stupid woman in the seat in front of me that can't bloody well sit still. I can't even put my drink down she's fidgettng that much... Folks, American Airlines are in financial trouble not because of high fuel prices but because they are shite. They're terrible domestic and even worse international..

Get to Vancouver and email Daniel who informs me that he's polishing his kit... OO-ER! Filthy chap. Check in to my hotel and ol' Daniel stops by and we go for a few pints and a good catch up on happenings. I perk up when he tells me that they have Mars Bars in Canada. Shite! The hotel gift shop is closed and I KNOW they have candy!



He drops me off, pats me on the bottom (kidding!) and I head off for a good nights kip. Big day tomorrow.

June 25^th- Arrive in London early on.... Traffic Jams... The hotel is in Knightsbridge and the traffic is utterly horrible. I worked in and around London many years ago and hated every single moment of it! Stinky, polluted, expensive, congested, noisy and just not me at all.... Like Houston, only with a mass of British history..... Check in to the hotel, shower and sleep.

Wake up later in the day, check my emails, and edit a few pics... Eat three Mars Bars, sleep some more, wake up with cabin fever and then head downstairs to the hotel bar and order a meal and a Guinness... They have a soccer match on in the bar full blast and there's a bunch of noisy fans who collectively feel the need to scream together every time there's a near goal. I give up after about an hour of this, finish up my pint and stop off by the hotel shop to stock up on Mars Bars and a Crunchie and head to my room and the land of nod..... zzzzzzzzz The less I see of London the better.

Got back to the hotel after last nights gig and sat in the bar for a couple of hours yakking with Joe and going over photos from the concert with him. Check out of the hotel mid morning with the band and head over to the airport to catch the flight for Birmingham. Get checked in and go through security which is considerably easier than how we fart around in the US airports. Find the gate and then the hankering for English chocolate gets the better of me and I break down and get two Mars Bars which I proceed to devour not just one but both of them! I was doing so good eating healthy as well... Shite!

After a 2 hour delay we take off and arrive in sunny Birmingham. The tour bus picks us up at the airport and takes us over to the NEC. Have a scout around the venue and see the Def Lep tour book/poster on the merch stands. It's a big fold out double sided thing with a huge band pic of mine and the other side is all of my live shots of the guys from last year. They did an excellent job with the layout and remembered to put my name on there as well! The Lepps know how to look after ya ;O) One of the big time Def Lep fans than the band has known for years is backstage. His name is Nori, a very polite Japanese fella who happens to be one of Mr. Ross Halfin's assistants. He brings gifts for all the guys and is just a really nice fella.

The crew set up a little area backstage again for Phil to do his martial arts workout and I grab some shots of him pounding the crap out of himself and Jean again. Joe comes along and we take a couple of mock scrapping shots of him and Phil in a standoff...too funny! Grab some pics of him later posing with one of his new Jackson guitars before he goes on.

Great show tonite but the crowd are considerably less lively than the one in Glasgow...must be something about the Midlands here in the UK... it was raining and it is a Wednesday so they're excused a little I guess but hell, come to a rock show and let your hair down folks!

Dinner after the show in the dressing room. We are in Birmingham so a very hot curry it is!! Phew! A ring stinger! Hang out a while afterward for a little with my chums in Black Stone Cherry. A couple of weeks back I got a copy of their new cd that is due out in August and was blown away... The first one was great...this one runs circles around it!! The feedback from WS and Def Lep on these boys is great and the audiences approve most enthusiastically... Give 'em a try!

The band splits up between a couple of buses, I'm with Jean, Malvin, Mark and Joe as we head up the road to Manchester. Sit up front with Joe and Malvin and get to work uploading pics to my laptop and start reviewing and choosing images. I tell you, traveling with Joe is great, he's a one man comedy routine of one liners and innuendo! It's just like listening to my mates and I...Priceless! And Malvin and Mark are top blokes! Get to the hotel, check in and crash about 4am... Tomorrow's a day off. Gonna need it methinks!