Gretsch have used another one of my photos for a Gretsch/Taylor Hawkins advert. This time it is running over consecutive months as a full spread ad in both DRUM! magazine and Modern Drummer publications. What was also cool was Gretsch framed 2 copies of the ad and mailed it to the Studio as a gift for Taylor. I was very kindly given one and then the other one will go up in the studio for all to see.

Disappointingly the quality of the reproduction in Modern Drummer wasn’t that great which is a shame as it has a larger circulation. It looked low res which seemed very odd. However, the spread in DRUM! magazine is the centre fold page and looks awesome!

This was the original image.

This is the framed version to hang on the wall.

I recently had the afternoon off in Prague and wandered around a little bit. Lovely city, which we had more time there! Here are a few snaps…

I recently ventured out into the desert with a friend and had an amazing time. You wouldn’t think such a desolate place could be so interesting, but when you have the likes of Las Vegas and Joshua Tree National Park all within hours of each other, you can’t go wrong.

We took a helicopter out to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas:

Headed to the Neon Museum in Las Vegas which collects, preserves and restores (some) old neon signs from Las Vegas. It’s so interesting to go and have a wander around the boneyard and learn some of the history behind where the signs came from. And also fantastic to know that some of these signs will be restored and displayed again in all their neon glory.

Once were done in Vegas we drove to Landers and visited The Integratron which you can read about on their website. Absolutely fascinating place where we took one of their private “sound baths”.

Some other general desert pics…

From The Integratron we drove through Joshua Tree National Park which is just next door. The best time to go there is sunset, breathtaking scenery and interesting light to take photographs. I’d love to go back and be out there at night to see the stars, I bet it’s spectacular.

We saw some wildlife on this occasion though – desert jack rabbits. They were HUGE and hopping around all over the place. One happily posed for some photos until some loud people got too close and scared the poor fella off.

Gretsch, the company who produce and provide Taylor Hawkins’ drum kits, recently bought a couple of photographs of Taylor which I took in Buenos Aires, South America this past April. They will appear in some upcoming Gretsch advertisements in various magazines. The first is currently in August’s edition of DRUM! magazine as Taylor won the Best Rock/Pop drummer of the year award. I was very excited to see my image in there and happy T won the award over his other competitors. Very well deserved. Image in question and magazine scan are below.