I’m Doing
Foguera Dels Velluters – Here are a few images from the protest/celebration. Watch a short video of it here.
Children ride on the shoulders of the men through the crowds and around the fire in Valencia’s in the Plaza del Pilar.
A boy concentrates to stay balanced as he rides around the bonfire.
As a show of strength and unity the group balance each other two high. The Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Our Lady of Pilar Parish) Catholic Church in the background.
Protesters place charactertures of local politicians dressed as sausages into the fire to burn. Many people feel that public funds have been mishandled while teachers and other public occupations’ wages are continually being cut.
A member of the drummer troop is hit in the head by an object thrown from an apartment window. It’s still unknown who threw it or why.
A girl throws another stick onto the fire in the Plaza del Pilar. Smaller fires were set up to cook various foods and hang out with fellow people from the neighborhood.
Jan 28, 2012 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
Take your eyes on an around the world trip in 2012 – to a new and beautiful journey every month! Handpicked from the free downloadable wallpaper archives, this new 2012 calendar displays some of the most stunning & popular images of this past year from mikenyff.com. Travel to Thailand, Bali, London, Colorado, New York City, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, New Zealand, Nepal, Turkey, …and of course Bonnaroo.
Take them off your computer and on to your wall. Order your calendar here – http://www.redbubble.com/people/mikenyff/calendars/8215169-travel-happy-the-bestest-wallpapers-from-mikenyff-com
Travel Happy … 
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
- Michael
Dec 19, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
The Hands of Time – London, England – For over a thousand years next to the River Thames, The Houses of Parliament & Big Ben have remained at the center of traditional English grandeur & influence
As far as old historic influential cities of the world go, London is definitely on the list. For about the last millenia, this city has had a major impact on the entire globe in some way. And if the veins of English influence have stretched throughout the globe, then they all lead back to the heart – the iconic Palace of Westminster, or more commonly known as The Houses of Parliament. This remarkable building is as intricate on the inside as it is on the outside. It has over 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, 3 miles of corridors, and even 19 bars and restaurants for the many thousands of staff who work there everyday.
Here are a few more slightly less known facts about Parliament, the Clock Tower and the real Big Ben.
- The Clock Tower and Big Ben are not the same thing. ‘Big Ben’ is the nickname of the giant bell inside the tower, named the after the civil engineer Benjamin Hall.
- The bell itself weighs 14.5 tons and is bonged with a 440 lb hammer – thus the big in the term ‘Big Ben’
- Even during the Nazi blitzkrieg of World War 2 the Clock never stopped working
- The oldest surviving part of the Palace of Westminster, is Westminster Hall, which was erected in 1097.
- The Tower leans slightly towards northwest, by 8.66 inches.
Download this week’s wallpaper -
December 15th, 2011 – Standard The Hands of Time - London, England (1280x1024pix) (39) Wide – The Hands of Time - London, England (1920x1080pix) (40)
Dec 15, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | 4 Comments »
Invitation to Reflect – Chairs invite visitors to sit and gaze out onto Lake Wakatipu’s dramatic scenery – Queenstown, New Zealand
New Zealand is a fantastic place. It’s everything you would want to be completely happy. Within the shores of those two tiny islands contain just the right mixture of rural and urban, modern and old-fashioned, tranquil and adrenalized, powerful and peaceful, grapes and hops. You’re greedy if you want anything more than that. Point being, when you’re out of balance you can’t expect to be happy. We are continually adjusting the equilibrium of our lives whether we know it or not, to balance out the events in our lives.
Traveling to new places is like forcing the pendulum to swing. Daring it almost. Plucking ourselves out of the rhythmic mundane circumstance we live in may not always be easy, and sometimes not the best idea, but we readjust our sense of reality and take in a different perspective of what’s around us – and adapt for a better outcome. This continual readjusting keeps me close to what I see as important in my life and cutting away the distractions. Of course, you don’t have to physically travel to exotic islands far off in the Pacific to get the same effect, just make it a point take in every new change in your life, whether negative or positive, and adjust your eyes to a new perspective. Which in the end, will bring you to reevaluate what’s important to you.
So make it a point to pull up a space and rest for a while. Reflect on what balances you. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
Download this weeks *wallpaper - December 8th, 2011
Standard Lake Wakatipu - Queenstown, NZ (1280x1024pix) (49)
Wide - Lake Wakatipu - Queenstown, NZ (1920x1080pix) (52)
If you would like this very view someday, go ahead and book a night at the Deco Backpackers Lodge
Dec 09, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
Trying my hand out in the field of architecture photography for the first time. I was commissioned by a precast concrete manufacturing company – who built these walls like a giant lego project. This is the Premier Psychiatric Group’s new building in Lincoln, NE and I only wish the garden space between the wall and building were a little more green.
Oct 22, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
*wallpaper October 6th, 2011 – Download --> Think Different - Mahabir Pun in Nangi, Nepal (1440x900px) (61)
Have you ever met someone great? A visionary. A leader. The above image is one of the greatest men I’ve ever had the opportunity to know on a deeper level. He is a visionary and a leader. His intuition, determination, and ingenuity has given him recognition by many people around the globe. By building a wireless internet system out of his backyard, he has brought innovations in communication and education, and income opportunities to rural Nepal. He has done it all on their own terms, showing if nothing else, that someone from any background, class, or income level can change the world and become great. Just try to get him to brag about the accomplishments and awards, and you will find a man who is humble–the last and true sign of a great person.
In the wake of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs’ death, I can’t help but examine what it is that makes a person great. When Jobs came back to Apple in 1996 he brought with him a new vision of what the fledgling company should be. I think their 1997 ‘Think Different‘ commercial says it poetically – The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Steve Jobs has significantly changed the world with how we communicate, how we are entertained, and how we work. His innovative, technologically advanced products, his marketing and strategic ideas, and the life lessons he reminded us of after his diagnosis of cancer that eventually took his life. It’s unfortunate the world has lost such a brilliant person so soon – but take heart knowing that great people like Mahabir are still out there thinking different.
In 1997 Steve Jobs narrates the first Think different commercial “Here’s to the Crazy Ones“. Here is the full free verse poem written by Craig Tanimoto:
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Oct 06, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
Beer. That is all. At least that is all I talked about last night. Through some mutual relationships I got invited over to a guy named Trent’s garage who I was told ‘brewed his own beer’ and that we were going to ‘just chill’ at his house for the evening. As it turned out, it was a great education in brewing and a good reminder that anything good is best when shared.
It was a long bike (about 30 minutes) so right off the bat I wasn’t too stoked, but an invite is an invite ….and free home brew is free home brew! It’s usually a good sign that you came to the right place when you first walk into some stranger’s garage and they hand you a cold pint even before they shake your hand. That’s what I call friends forever. For the next 3 or so hours Trent shows me all his (mostly homemade) brewing equipment, educates me on the intricacies of brewing beer (water pH what?), and alas allows me to taste the 5 different styles of home brew he has on tap or bottled up. And by taste, I mean a pint sized taste.
Then we move on to the basement that’s full of an incredible variety of beer from all over the world. The most amazing part of it was when he opens the beer fridge and says everything on the bottom is yours to open and enjoy – experiment and try something new, and if you dont like it someone else here probably will. Just don’t open the expensive top shelf bottles – they’re for special occasions. Not just a nice guy who likes beer (a lot) and will talk your ear off about what it took to get the last batch of IPA to carbonate, but a true ambassador to the art and love of a craft, as he would share it with anyone who walks in his door – even the one he has just met.
This weeks wallpaper is in honor of the wonderful Oktoberfests going on all over the world this month
September 30th, 2011 – DOWNLOAD --> Lederhosen for Beginners - May Fest Chicago (1440x900px) (51)
Sep 30, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
It was a hard day’s night…and I was working like a doc (wa whaaa)
Please excuse my lame humor with The Beatles reference – I just couldn’t resist. My girlfriend says I have “dad humor” meaning that when we’re out in public and I think I’m saying something funny (I usually take the lame angle) she just stares at me with an embarrassed look like she’s saying “you are embarrassing me in front of my friends!” Although its probably not your highest level of humor, sometimes it’s needed to break the ice for photo/video shoots.
Anyways, at least the photo isn’t very lame! This last week I got to shoot interviews for a series of video vignettes for the Great Planes Regional Medical Center in North Platte, Ne and lets just say I learned a lot about how to look like a real doctor. The video spots will highlight their brand new Heart & Vascular Center where they offer intervention and diagnostic cardiology procedures as well as cardiac rehabilitation. This images was just after a diagnostic procedure I had the opportunity to be in the room and film. The giant, very expensive looking machine behind me swings around and takes near 3-D video x-rays of the catheter and blood flow in real time. And I thought I had expensive camera equipment! (…see what I mean)
Now its time for the real fun to start and spend days in front of the computer cutting the video. Updates to come soon….
Side Note: You can see in the background the patient watching videos of his own heart beat from the procedure. Pretty sweet!
Sep 21, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | 6 Comments »
If you travel though a country (wheels on the ground) for long enough you will likely see anything – especially in Africa. By anything of course I mean goats, bikes, chickens, guns, churches, mud holes, mud huts, fried bugs, grilled monkey, machetes (with blood), tubas, laundry out to dry and the endless red dirt line winding its way through countless villages. I like this particular image because this was our view for most of the duration of the trip since the DRC was a fairly dangerous place (in general) at the time and we had to stay inside the truck – but our front window seemed like a window into another world. The bumpy road just kept rolling underneath, the daily life of the Congolese passing by, and if your stomach could handle staring out the window….you did.
I hope you’ll get a sense of another place too. September 8th, 2011 *wallpaper – DOWNLOAD -> Road to Somewhere – Democratic Republic of the Congo (1440x900px) (59)
Sep 09, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
August 18th, 2011 – DOWNLOAD ->Off the Job - Demacratic Rep. of Congo, Africa (1440x900px) (72)
Like most residents in many other developing countries, it’s early to bed and early to rise. Life is hard and work is generally tough and hot – but an afternoon snooze to escape the heat is often necessary for everyone including roosters. Not only do roosters crow early in the morning, they constantly crow all day long, and when there are at least 10 of them in every household it can get pretty annoying. So an afternoon snooze for the rooster is another escape for everyone else.
Aug 18, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | 1 Comment »
At a recent assignment to shoot a Children’s Museum I ran into Mr. Lightyear, with an inquisitive eye for a stuffed deer.
Jun 18, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on The Himalayan Gap blog on 5/23/11
A visionary with his projects, Mahabir explains how one of his newest endeavors, a shitaki mushroom farm, will bring jobs and create a better diet for the community and surrounding areas. “We must show the villagers what they can do, then they will understand what’s possible” Mahabir states. Although some projects are more successful than others, he remains optimistic that someday they all will benefit the rural communities more effectively.
Continually fixing, updating and expanding. That’s the future of Nepal Wireless – a non-profit organization that has brought wireless internet to more than 140 remote villages across Nepal. Here Mahabir updates equipment at the 3,650m Khopra ridge - one of the highest relay stations in Nepal Wireless’ network. From the footstep of the Annapurna I & II (shown in the background) the signal bounces to many villages miles across the valley.
Mahabir checks a faulty network connection, fixes it, then checks his email. A great networker in the social sense, Mahabir has had help from many volunteers from around the world to get the network off the ground (especially from Australia, US, and Japan). He is currently working with the Nepali government to expand the network to the Chitwan National park to facilitate security cameras in an attempt to protect the endangered One Horned Rhinos from poachers.
Mahabir smiling next to the hut where he was born more than 50 years ago in the village of Nangi, Nepal. It has been his life’s work to bring a better life to not only the villagers of Nangi but to all of rural Nepal starting with quality education and ending with income generating projects that work. Many wonder how he does it. He doesn’t ponder that question though, he just does.
May 23, 2011 | Categories: I'm Doing | Leave A Comment »
Children ride on the shoulders of the men through the crowds and around the fire in Valencia’s in the Plaza del Pilar.
