SKF NOTE: My educated guess on this Vinnie Colaiuta endorsement picture, found among my file folders, is that Yamaha sent it to me when I was gathering info for CREEM’s 1985 Drum Supplement.

I was surprised and disappointed then at the poor quality of this photo. The original is printed on thin, semi-gloss paper — which made it impossible to reprint in a magazine. Pre-digital photography especially, magazines always wanted to start with highest quality photo prints. For one reason, photos lose some of their quality with each reproduction.

When you start with a poor quality photo, knowing it will be of even poorer quality when the magazine is printed — it’s almost always better to not use the photo at all.

I scanned and tweaked my original copy of Vinnie’s photo for this post. Again, not a great photo. But, it is a photo from one of the great drum makers of one of the great drummers. One moment in time.