As an artist and photographer, here is what I’ve been up to lately.

•November 10, 2009 • Leave a Comment

 I’m a photographer and digital artist located in the Los Angeles California area.  I am currently seeking a muse for artistic work.

To find out more go to :

I have been adding a lot of work to several online gallery sites. You can purchase anything from greeting cards to fine art prints on art paper with matte and frames to rolled canvas to stretched canvas. Wall art makes a great gift because it’s a gift that keeps on giving everytime to see it on the wall.

You can follow me on the twitter at http://twitter.com/claytonbruster

I am on MySpace at http://myspace.com/claybruster

I am on FaceBook at http://facebook.com/clayton.bruster and

Here are other places to find me:

I have also been chosen as a principle photographer for an upcoming book by Tony Kemp called, "Creation And The Garden Of Eden" The online pre-publication is at http://www.wix.com/tonypkemp/Creation-Book and you can see one of my works of art at the beginning of the photography section on page 100.

I am on many, many other sites so just ask or search for me on the site of your choice.

Daily Dose Of Diabetes & The Epi Pen

•October 30, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Today I am going to the doctors to get my prescription for Xolair. It’s an injection for allergic asthma. The side affects are pretty scary, 5% higher risk for cancer, 20% higher risk of bronchial infections and on and on. Not to mention a significant amount of people go into anaphylaxis when they are injected. They said to be sure to bring my epi pen and have it ready. It will take two weeks to get it in. It has to be special ordered. When they get it I will go in for my first injection. It has to be mixed together 1/2 hour before the injection and I will have to stay at least two hours at the doctors office after the injection.

Today I am getting a flu shot. Again, I have to have my epi pen handy since I’m allergic to flu shots (eggs). After talking to the doctor though, we think it’s worth the risk. I get that at 1 pm today and again, they said to be sure to bring my epi pen and have it handy.. Woo Hoo! ;-)

Life used to be so simple and easy before the D. Never had these problems before. Or maybe I should say I’ve never had these worries before. I’ve had pneumonia and few times but got through it without hospitalization. Had double pneumonia once, and got through it without hospitalization. But never have I had to take all these meds for my asthma or allergies. I never had an emergency inhaler till I go the D. Now I use a nebulizer, steroid inhaler (advair 500/50) in the morning and night, theophyllin 300 twice a day, singulair, prednisone, clariton, emergency inhalers and on and on.
Then there’s the cholesterol meds, the insulin injections, actos, metformin for the D and cozaar for blood pressure. Then of course the supplements; fish oil three times a day, a diabetes health pack (package of 6 pills for diabetics) and of course the anti-depressant (which from the sound of this blog post is not working well ).
Sorry for the rainting, just worried about the flu shot today and beginning the Xolair. Then I have to worry about getting the H1N1 vaccine. First let’s see how the regular flu shot goes. ;-) I have refills on my epi pen, but I’m really hoping I never need to use them.

I think this would be much easier if I had someone to go through it with me. Someone to help me through the anxiety of it all. Someone to hold my hand and say it’s going to be ok. But who in their right mind would want to go through this? Having someone at your side when you have the D with this many problems is not something you find midstream. I think it would have to be someone that was with you before the D, already established enough to want to go through it with you. Not a good way to start a relationship. ;-)
Enough ranting for now. Have a great and safe Halloween. Oh, and hide the chocolate. I love candy. ;-)

Sign The Copyright Petition for Stricter Laws

•September 29, 2009 • Comments Off

Everyone who knows me knows how much I support the enforcement of copyright laws. I have had so much of my work STOLEN from me and violators of my licensing agreement. People today, especially with the Internet, don’t understand or respect copyright. I signed this and I hope you will too. You can sign this petition at http://www.copyrightalliance.org/letter/

Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden,

We, the undersigned, are just a few of the more than 11 million artists living, working, and creating across the United States. Our work brings significant cultural and economic value to our society – and contributes $1.52 trillion to the nation’s GDP. Yet that value is being disregarded as our rights and incentives to create are increasingly under threat.

Hear us as we speak with one voice about the importance of creators’ rights.

We are the essence of America. Since the founding of our country, our work has provided light in the darkness of conflict, humor in the depths of sadness, beauty in the face of ugliness, and reason in the dysfunction of division.

We serve as the foundation of our communities; you find us in schools, performance halls, libraries, museums, community centers, and movie houses. We enrich our culture with a wide range of creative expression, including music, film, software, video games, writing, photography, graphics, and other visual arts.

We contribute in some way to every single industry in the country. Many of us are self-employed. All of us work hard and pay taxes.

Yet, we are under assault. Our rights to control the distribution, use, and reproduction of our works in our vibrant digital age are dismissed by many who do not understand the value we bring to society. They tell us to work harder, create better, and give our works away. Some think that they should control our works and that they should be able to appropriate, perform, and copy them how they please, without our consent, benefit, or participation.

Our freedom as creators lies in the Constitutional rights we cherish, rights given to us to promote our culture. Without these rights, our ability to pursue our creative dreams and to meet the high expectations of those who benefit from our creative works is significantly diminished. As a result, all Americans will suffer.

Mr. President and Vice President, hear our call. We know you understand the value our creative contributions bring to our society and economy, and we know you can encourage our citizens to respect our rights. Please pursue policies supportive of the rights of artists and the encouragement of our creative efforts. Without the proper respect for our rights and works today, it will become even more difficult for us to create in the future.

Sincerely,

You’re Fired . . .

•August 20, 2009 • Comments Off

WOW! I got this in email today and OMG! This is the fire we need as Americans. This is what this country needs. I only hope that people aren’t so busy with the day to day that this kind of spirit gets lost and government becomes the same old, same old. Count me in.

The following letter, read on Glenn Beck’s show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice. Once you read this, you will want to forward it to all of your friends…

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona . She writes an open letter to our nation’s leadership:

I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored.. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why — what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try — please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business s of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us.. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Photo trip to Getty Villa

•August 17, 2009 • Comments Off

I went to the Getty Villa on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 with three other photographers. Rich, Carla and Nancy. Here is a video with some short clips and a few images from the trip.

To see more images check out my flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/claytonbruster. There are many new images uploaded from the neighborhood, Getty Villa, Getty Museum, Santa Clarita Valley and much more. Enjoy.

Photography Classes – Training

•August 10, 2009 • Comments Off

I am going to start teaching photography so if you are interested to taking some classes to improve your skills or just to learn new things, contact me me ASAP. I am located in Los Angeles (Tujunga-Sunland) area. Cost is $35 per class. What I won’t do is teach you about your specific camera. What I will do is teach you the technical aspects of photography so you understand your camera and don’t need my help to use it. I will teach a variety of subjects from beginning photography to basic technical aspects to advanced technical aspects. Some topics will include:

  • Exposure
  • Aperture
  • Shutter Speed
  • ISO
  • Zone System
  • Lighting
  • Using Reflectors
  • White Balance
  • Composition
  • Portraiture
  • Posing
  • Fashion
  • Glamour
  • Art
  • Macro
  • and more…

The cost is $35 per session, $100 for three session (a savings of $15) or $175 for six sessions (a savings of $35 – like getting a class for free) and begin soon. Class locations will vary and all in the area around Los Angeles, Tujunga, Sunland and Santa Monica. Each session will run 1 to 2 hours.

If you would like to give a class or two or more as a gift or pre-sign up you can do so at Modeling For Clay

Who’s In Your Wallet – Capitol Hill Card

•August 5, 2009 • Comments Off

The Proposal

•August 5, 2009 • Comments Off

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers.  The remaining workers must find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well.. 

 
Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks. 

Therefore:
Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members.
Reduce Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State).
Then, reduce their staff by 25%.
Accomplish this over the next 8 years
(two steps/two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay/member/ yr.)

$97,175,000 for elimination of their staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for20total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion/yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and improve efficiencies.  It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country!

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well.  It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established.  (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note:
Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems.  Also, w e have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.

$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.

$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.

$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. (that’s 8-BILLION just to start!)

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits, tax payers could save a bundle.
Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.

Letter From The Boss

•August 5, 2009 • Comments Off

LETTER FROM THE BOSS:
As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that
Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will
increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would
have to increase by about 10%.

Since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the
economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has
really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn’t
know how to choose who would have to go.

So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty
‘Obama’ bumper stickers on our employees’ cars and have decided these folks
will be the ones to let go. I can’t think of a more fair way to approach
this problem. They voted for change, I gave it to them.

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

Sincerly,

The Boss

Shoots on July 31, August 1 and 2

•August 3, 2009 • Comments Off

Busy weekend for me. I did a shoot Friday at the Citrus Classic Balloon Fesitival in Santa Paula California. You can see the images at Citrus Classic Balloon Festival including The Glowing.

Then on Saturday I went to the Getty Villa in Malibu and got these shots.

Then Sunday I found this rose bud and did some fine art comps from it.

Rose Bud

http://www.redbubble.com/people/claytonbruster/art/3527714-2-rose-bud

Rose Bud

Rose Bud

Rose Bud