Happenings from M.D. Shivers

I've been on the ground running the past few months, traveling, editing, shooting, traveling and you kind of just wake up every day seeing what the next thing will be. It may be new words coming out of a loved one's month, a new piece of computer gear that may be released or something that just goes missing. I've been reading blogs on the net for a long time- some I follow every day, some I follow every other week. It's amazing how this information machine keeps going and going- new things everyday, or something being hashed out over and over.
I'm currently at the phase of being here but not here, listening but not listening, seeing but not seeing, doing but not doing. I kind of like it. It's relaxing, yet I still am getting a lot of things done, but time is just moving faster and faster- which can be a little scary.
So i've got a huge backlog of things that i've been reading,listening,watching and studying. And why keep it all to one self?
Another thing that I've been thinking about is enagement. Not marriage, but people to people. People should engage their neighbors. People should engage their old college classmates. People should engaged their preachers. We all need that extra little kick in creativity, and friendship never hurts.
So it's sometimes funny to think about that one can get a lot of "engagement" through some random blog that you found one night while doing some crazy surfing, and luckily, oh luckily thought to create a bookmark.
While the blogs are a valuable resource, a little good ol fashion get together never hurts.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

the world keeps spinning, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

starting the new year with a new spin. Hope to have some new and exciting stuff on flickr and my website. blogging,photos and videos. At least that's one of my goals for '08 :)
The last half of '07 was crazy busy, so I've slipped from posting photos. I've been taking them, just only visible in my little world.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those who use the Adobe Creative Suite Software- I'd wait on the purchase. They are announcing CS3 on March 27th and shipping it later this spring. For Mac users, this will be Intel ready. Adobe calls it "the largest software release in it's 25 history."

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/05/cs3/index.php

Posted by Michael Shivers at 03:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been hit pretty hard with spammers on my blog lately. I've tried to keep the comments open, and people can comment etc. I'm getting 50 a day from this spam junk, so I've changed some settings around, and so now it will ask for a vaild email address. I won't use it or whatever spammers do, I'm just tried of deleting all of the spam.

movable type should have a better system!

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My mind is starting to think in the blog format... kinda the way I post photos on flickr. Just got to find a computer when i have those thoughts.

lots of video work has been done and put to rest. excited, tired and glad that it is over. In the process of that several week fiasco, i got some reading glass. you can check my flickr blog on that.

So I've entered into the four eyed world when i am in front of the computer. Kinda weird- and still getting use to it.

As far as the video projects, I worked with the Atlanta News FOX 5 on a medical piece dealing with injecting stem cells into the heart with the outcome of revitalizing the dead cells from a heart attack. Pretty cool stuff- i shot some footage of the operation and other B-Roll stuff and they used it in their news piece.

Then I collaborated with the ACC (American College of Cardiology) and filmed some intro's and did some audio recording for a breaking news piece about Pfizer and their wonder drug torcetrapib, Pfizer's experimental pill to raise good cholesterol, touted as one of the most important medicines in a generation. Well it got yanked out of research and is going no where.
Go to http://www.cardiosource.com/ and click on the Dec. 5th video. I also shot the Dec. 8th video too.

After all that I shot some footage for a news story about the stem cell heart research video for a company (gosh totally forgot the name at the moment) that creates health news stories and then sells them to news affiliates across the country. I was helping out another videographer and the News company and asked him to get the footage from me. Do I get the short end of the stick? Probably. Do I get credit for it? Probably not. Do I care? ehh.... i guess that is how it goes in the industry. If they want more footage they'll come directly to me and I make more contacts.

Also in the midst of all the video stuff.. I am trying to revamp a few websites and trying to get a new one up for a local Swiss author. Its fun... but busy!!

anyway i'm here :)

Posted by Michael Shivers at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of Mastercard's design firms contacted my about using some photos of that I took for the website Priceless.com. They were very easy to work with and the site turned out great. They were doing a story on Café 458 and I went there a few weeks back when some friends of mine where volunteering there. Well the firm found my pictures through my flickr account and now they are on the site.

It's the first picture on the home page of priceless.com and also on the article page at , http://www.priceless.com/articles/a208.html

I did a screen capture of the page for archiving purposes

Posted by Michael Shivers at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy August - day 01, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

This is my first picture of my new series that I am doing.

I decided I am going to take a least one picture a day in August and upload the picture that same day. I don't know if I will do it, but I going to try. I had the thought a few weeks ago.. trying to figure out a way to get motivated about taking pictures and have some kind of system to try and improve. maybe this will help. Depending on how it goes I may try to do it in September too. Keep my photos and stream fresh. I'd like to take my time at finding that photo. My life is pretty busy- so maybe this will open my eyes to the stuff around me. Its always easy to take photos on vacaction... different enviroment and all provides simulation etc. But the day to day stuff can be pretty boring and you forget what you see around yourself.

My internet has been down all night (august 1st) and finally came back up at 11:20pm. errr.

ok still didn't work. it's now the next day. dang.

well my goal is to try to upload the photo on the day that I took it. we will see how that one goes

Posted by Michael Shivers at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More blogs about mdshivers.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

prepare for landing..., originally uploaded by mdshivers.

where do you start? wish i blogged more.. but at least I do eh? Today was a fun day in tech land because Flickr got a massive update and so now i am enjoying the benifits of that. Also today- Apple announced their new I-Book replacements- the new Macbooks. And they are freaking awsome. Good price and they can dual boot. sweet. yes that wil probably be my next laptop in a couple of years. when they have made everything univeral. Bought time eh? can't wait.

Summer plans are in the making lookks like.... no where for now! yep sitting tight hanging out and waiting for new things to happen. bought some new photography books the other day-- very cool indeed. and then i realized i am in dire need to update my photos on my site. bit dated. just takes so much work.
yahoo also updated their home page today- but of course it doesn't support saffari yet- only firefox and explorer. Coming soon they say! sawh ever.

well i'm here we are here and kicken. oh we saved a geese baby this morning. it was lost and we walked it to the lake behind our house and it found its parents! once of those moments you get all excited that you messed with nature a little.

ciao ciao!

Posted by Michael Shivers at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Walkin' the Dog


Originally uploaded by mdshivers.

Well I am sitting here after many of many revisions and I am on the final lap. Same video that i mentioned before.

So its a tedious process. Doing a lot of it in Motion and then importing it into Final Cut. But every time you make an adjustment in Motion, you have to re-import it. AHH!@!. Then re-render again. Hence thats why I am writing this write now on my laptop and my desktop is rendering away. But the little tweeks make the whole thing look good.

Less than a week now when we head to Switzerland. SO SO excited about that. We are renting a car so we can drive around and do some site seeing. I'll be taking my DSLR with me; and most likely my video camera too. Ally will be missed but in good company.

anywho- things are good with us. We are really liking our new place and its much more spacious. New additions can easily fit.



So back and forth of rendering. Such is life.

I am so excited to see so many old friends and places next week. Its a blessing that we are able to do that.

off for now ...

Posted by Michael Shivers at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well- I've decided to try a new blog platform. I have thought about importing all of my old blog stuff from the past year and just not too sure if I want to do that. I guess i could but eh.....

So I'm going to try this one for a while. Seems to have a better interface and usability. I also have set it up on other websites so i am trying to get use to the whole interface. Posting pictures is not the best, but maybe I can use flickr to make it better.

So we are in with the new and out with the old. The old is not deleted, just put to the side for now.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ally ready for Christmas
Originally uploaded by mdshivers.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thought that may be a good title. Maybe it would catch the attention of some fellow surfer who just happened upon my site. Nice try.

Anywho- weekend was great and was able to make several updates on my site.
1. New Pictures
2. A new wedding video
3. "Believe" a short film I made is now online again.
4. I now have a search engine built into the site that actually work. Its on the main page and my blog page. try it out!
5. My links page has been totally revamped . There are actually some really good links there that are useful.
5. some other little things that needed fixing.

So now off to more stuff that needs to be added. Like my Services page. Its totally need to be worked on- but that will actually take more time than you think. But it will get done.

I recently have been finding some really cool sites - a great one on Photography/Photoshop/ How digital cameras work, and so much more. Its called "Luminous Landscape" Check it out. Lots of fun.

And still Flickr's Explore part of their site really rocks. I totally love finding new pictures and reading about people's stories.
Well thats my rant for the day. I plan to start posting more pictures on my blog- taking my camera with me- to find that one good shot. we will see what comes of it. This shot was taken last year when I was in New York.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)