The Wyote Blog » Photography

The Little Circus

Kiel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:17:50 +0000

There’s something magical about miniatures… well, at least for me anyway. I love looking in and just examining every detail. It’s amazing how someone can put so much work into something and then imagining that it has a life of its own.

Last year I came across one of my favorite displays, "The Howard Bros. Circus" at the Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, FL. It was build by Howard C. Tibbals and according to an article in Worthpoint Magazine, "The entire Howard Bros. Circus—complete with eight main tents, 152 wagons, 1,500 circus performers and workers, more than 700 animals and a 55-car train—has a permanent home at the Ringling Circus Museum." Supposedly it took this man over 50 years to complete!

If you’re ever in the Sarasota area, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is a great place to visit. It has an art museum, gardens, and a circus museum. Here are just a handful of pictures I took of the miniatures, I’ll also include a video I found on YouTube which allows you to see the whole miniature circus. I hope you enjoy!

My Fascination With Animals

Kiel — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:41:57 +0000

So I may have a slight obsession with animals. I grew up with animals for as long as I can remember: dogs, cats, fish, guinea pigs, birds, hamsters, turtles… yep, it’s been good times. Most kids need high-tech toys to keep them entertained, but my brothers and I had our animals for entertainment. I remember Micah and his friend Nathaniel giving Hyden (dog) and Doodles (cat) voices, they even took the camcorder and made some funny videos with the animals.

One of my favorite pets would be our bird, Isaac. Isaac is an African-Grey Parrot and is hilarious (he now lives with my mom in Florida). That bird would say so many funny things:

Isaac: Kiel!
Kiel (from upstairs): What?!
Isaac: Time to get up!

There’d be other times when our cat, Doodles, would walk by and Isaac would look at Doodles and go, "Hey doods" and give him the appropriate cat call. I was just down in Florida last summer and my mom would lift her wine glass up, Isaac would take a couple sips and then burp… it’s hilarious!

So now when I see animals, I see a personality and it makes me smile. But I’m also fascinated by how intelligent they can be. For example, at work we have geese on our property each year. The cool thing is that these birds migrate away for the winter and somehow always find their way back, even Stumpy, the one-footed goose. So having said all that, I just wanted to share with you some cool pictures I’ve taken over the years. I hope you enjoy!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland…

Kiel — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:46:57 +0000

Tonight was a great night filled with inspiration, mixed with snow. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but I’ll try my best.

I was leaving Lynn and Carl’s last night when I decided to take the scenic route. When I worked at The Children’s Museum and Ivy Tech, I was extremely intentional about not taking the most direct route home, which was Meridian Street. Once I would get past 38th and Meridian, I would start traveling through the neighborhoods: Pennsylvania Street, Washington Boulevard, Central Avenue, College Avenue. Driving down these streets you begin to notice the character of the houses, beautiful houses and beautiful neighborhoods.

And so, as I left Lynn and Carl’s house, I cranked up the heat in my car and put on some jazz music… Art Tatum and John Coltrane to be exact. I cannot begin to tell you how at-peace I felt. With virtually no other cars around, I felt like the city was mine and time was of no importance. So I drove, admiring the houses while Tatum played on the stereo and the sound of snow crunched underneath my tires.

Then it happened, I passed a pretty decked-out house around 54th and New Jersey…

I have to tell you that it was a pretty rainy Christmas this year and for some reason, Christmas just didn’t feel like Christmas. But when I passed this house, I was immediately amazed, like a little child riding around looking at Christmas lights with his parents. The soft glow of the lights against the white snow, the cardboard Santa Claus in the upstairs window, the leg lamp in the downstairs window… WOW!

Nothing could really top my experience at that point… I was so excited to find this house. I have a fond place in my heart for old houses and when they’re decked out in Christmas awesome-ness, it makes me love them that much more.

As I neared the end of my scenic car ride, I decided to do something I don’t normally do… I grabbed my tripod from inside the apartment and drove around Carmel and took a few pictures. It was such a great night to be out, just me and the snow plows. It was cold, but I thoroughly enjoyed taking some photographs. Here’s a few I’d love to share with you…

1) My Statue Neighbor Gets in the Spirit
If you’ve ever been in my neighborhood (the Arts & Design District of Carmel), you’ve probably seen these statues. Every day I drive past them and every night, I see the streetlamps cast their light on the statues. Some find these statues weird, creepy, and a waste of money. I, however, like to think of them as friendly faces that greet me on my way home. Over the month of December, the city put Santa hats on the statues, here is one of them…

2) The Gazebo at City Hall
I had been perusing through the local paper when I noticed that the City of Carmel had their Christmas tree lighting around Thanksgiving. Having missed this spectacle, I was thrilled when I drove by and saw that the tree and all the decorations were still up!

Well friends, I hope you enjoyed the blog post. It was a great night and I just felt so inspired… but alas, it is now 1:40 a.m. and I must be getting to bed. I hope all of you had a safe, happy, and blessed Christmas!

Let’s Go Flying – Louisville

Kiel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:33:25 +0000

As some of you know, I headed down to Bloomington to go flying with Jake. Our destination? Louisville, KY.

I did have the utter realization as we were climbing to 5,500 feet, that I was placing a lot of trust in Jake to know what he was doing. He liked to reassure me that if I fell from this altitude, I’d have no chance of survival. Thanks Jake!

We made it Louisville in good time, landing at Louisville’s first commercial airport and the oldest continuous running airport in America, Bowman Field (you can learn more here). Once we landed, we ran across the street to Bearno’s Little Sicily and grabbed a couple of sub sandwiches… not too shabby. After that, we headed back to Bloomington.

Anyway, here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Happy First Birthday Ruby!

Kiel — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:32:33 +0000

We celebrated my niece Ruby’s birthday yesterday at the park, and even though it rained, we still had a great time. Here are some pictures!

Camping With “The Six Pack” – Photo Album

Kiel — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:08:06 +0000

My Neighbors… Frozen in Time…

Kiel — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:20:35 +0000

So when I moved to Carmel, I knew I was going to be near the Arts & Design District. In the end, there’s nothing especially great about it. There are a few restaurants, some shops, some apartments. But the greatest thing that stuck out to me were the statues! When I first moved there, there were around five, but a few more have sprung up and surprised me when I’m driving down the road and see them. So here are my fake neighbors…

As I was putting the post together, my bird when a little nuts and flew into the maintenance closet next to the kitchen and found himself in a grocery bag full of newspapers!

After mocking him and taking his picture, he didn’t have much to say to me…

Let’s Go Flying!

Kiel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:29:05 +0000

So I got to go flying with my buddy Jake on Sunday. It was a beautiful day for flying, we went from Bloomington, IN to Terre Haute, IN. Jake was practicing “instrument time” which basically means flying only by watching your instrument panel and not looking outside for points of reference. This is pretty important especially if weather starts getting bad because you may not be able to see the runway or other aircraft if visibility gets low, so it’s important to know your instruments and how to navigate with them.

Here are some pictures and a few videos for all of you, enjoy!

Birds Take Over Grace CC… And Other Random Pictures

Kiel — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:48:11 +0000

I’ve been accumulating photos on my phone of pictures I keep meaning to post. My co-worker Serena says I’m obsessed with taking pictures of animals… and maybe I am. But it’s only because I’m fascinated by animals and think they’re cool. SO, here are some photos for ya.

I ran into this goose while I was trying to leave work on Thursday. If you didn’t know, we had a goose hatch some eggs here at Grace (see that post here). Well, apparently Papa Goose here didn’t appreciate me getting too close to the little ones, so he blocked my way out of church. I eventually got past him without any damage, although he did try and peck at my car.

Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched when I walk into work… like this goose up on top of the church building keeping an eye on the parking lot.

In Teri’s office, we have this wonderful view of the nest. I guess Teri’s window is more hospitable to birds, since it’s kind of out of the elements.

This little guy fell from his nest up in the rafters, we scooped him up with some resumes and placed him in the grass where his mother quickly found him. I think he’s okay, haven’t seen him in a week or so.

I have found these pictures of Jesus taped to a few trees around the park. I think they were placed there by some of the Mormon missionaries around here since the back of the picture is an “ad” for the LDS Bible. I really wish they would’ve wrote something thought-provoking, since I took time to cut down the picture of Jesus. Sheesh!

“MADE IN CHINA.” An American flag made in China… must we outsource everything? Can’t we do something for ourselves?!

My adorable niece after the 4th of July parade. I tried to teach her how to throw a frisbee, unfortunately she just made me chase after her around a big tree while she held the frisbee.

Well, that’s all for now folks. I thought you might enjoy some of my random pictures. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!

Meeting My Pond Neighbors

Kiel — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:28:39 +0000

In one of my previous posts, I introduced you to Momma Goose who has laid her eggs outside one of our doors at church. Well, I was walking around the park and came to the pond and ran across two geese, I named them Steve and Larry. And they were keeping as close an eye on me as I was on them. In fact, I think that they secretly work for the Carmel Police Department… because you know, ponds are sources of terrorist activity… NOT! Anyway, here’s a video and a few pictures I took of them.