Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Happy New Year! and New Hardware!

I guess another year has come to an end.  Looking back I had a pretty good 2009, especially the last week.  My wife and I went up to Michigan to spend some time with my family during Christmas.  My brother and his wife were home from China so it was great to spend some time with them.  They made it back safely to China but apparently their sleeping routines are a little off.  I guess that happens when you fly half way around the world…

HP pavilion elite 9290f

HP pavilion elite 9290f

Not long ago I bought myself a late birthday/early Christmas present.  My old hp pavilion (probably 6 or 7 years old) needed an upgrade.  It served me well and I never really had any major problems with it until I crammed it so full of programs and files at the end that it really started to slow down.  So I shopped around and decided to go with another hp.  Since I plan to have it for awhile I decided to go all out and I got the Pavilion Elite 9290f while it was on sale.  So far it has been awesome.  It came with Windows 7 which seems to be pretty smooth.  Plus I got a copy of Adobe CS4 and MS Office at a great price because I’m a student at IUSB.  Everything has run really well so far.  I can’t believe how much faster everything is compared to my old computer. I’m actually typing this post on the new computer.  It’s set up in the “command center” at the moment (also known as the living room where I have two computers, an LCD monitor, Wii, Xbox 360, and TV all set up and ready to take over the world.)

dell 2209wa

dell 2209wa

The desktop didn’t come with a monitor so after getting some cash and gift cards for Christmas I talked to the fine people at Dell and they offered me a great sale price on their IPS panel 2209wa  monitor.  Apparently it is a pretty decent monitor for photo editing without a huge price tag.

Now, as Christmas break draws to a close, I’m going to try to get all the computers and the new wireless printer we got at Sam’s Club to connect to each other through the magic of a wireless network.

Photos of Dogs That Hunt Birds

A couple weeks ago I was hired by a friend to do some photography for his business.  He and his dad train dogs and run a kennel in Albion, IN called Boberosa Gun Dogs.  They wanted some pictures of their dogs and kennel to use for the new website that they are having designed.  So I had to get up early on a Saturday morning but it was worth it.  The lighting was awesome and I got a lot of good shots (as far as I can tell).  I don’t really know much about hunting or training dogs but they said that I got some good photos.  It was pretty cool and I learned a lot.  And they said I might be able to do it again.  If it works out right I might take some photos of dogs on a regular basis for their clients.  Here are a few of the photos I like:

Christmas Photos (from church)

Every now and then I get asked to take some photos at an event that our church puts on.  About the first week of December Crossroads had their Christmas music program.  There was a lot of good music and the kids put on a good show and I took a few photos of all the action.  They wanted mostly photos of people coming in and a few of the band but the shots of the band are more exciting so take a look at those:

Family Portraits at the Park

Even though we learned a lot by taking pictures of a baby it was nice to get back to a family with kids that wouldn’t start crying every few minutes.  We photographed this family at Bonneyville Mill park on an overcast day in October.  Here is a small sample of the photos that we ended up with:

They were a great family to work with.  They were a lot of fun and we got a bunch of great shots.  We got some good individual photos of each kid and some good shots with all three kids… I should have put up more but I had a hard time deciding.  Now I know how they feel when they say that they are having a tough time deciding which they like.  At least they aren’t saying that they don’t like any of them…

Into the Realm of Baby Photography

In October my wife and I were asked by some friends to take some photos of their son.  Though we didn’t have any experience (or idea about) taking photos of very young children we decided to give it a try.  We spent most of the time at the park and also took a few at Fashion Farm and a couple at their house.  It was a little cold so the poor kid probably didn’t want to be out there.  He wasn’t extremely cooperative but we still got a few good shots of him and the whole family.  Check out a few of the photos below: