After two weeks in Philadelphia, I was ready for some country….and not just any country, Amish country. So we researched the Amish on what else but wikipedia…..some facts we didn’t know were that the Amish are not allowed to wear buttons or receive education past the 8th grade, so they just repeat 8th grade until they are legally old enough to graduate. Most importantly the Amish are a very strong community and I would love to do a photo project on their culture, but unfortunately we only had an afternoon so it became more like Amish hunting than anything else, but it was a great adventure in Pennsylvania’s beautiful countryside and I added another community to my to-do-list.

Amish clothes drying….see any buttons? Besides looking for people without buttons we also looked for houses without power-lines…..

and horse drawn buggies were pretty good indicators but they were more challenging to photograph….

so I looked for easier subjects….not sure if these people were Amish and unfortunately my boyfriend is not Amish….but the lightening that illuminated the sky behind him made the experience worthwhile and then we quickly got back in the car.

Buttons…definitely not Amish but this miniature golf course was listed on the Amish tour map so we decided to stop anyway and see if Amish miniature golf was any different than non-Amish miniature golf.

Well it was a pretty tough course, Amish or not.

This is Amanda and one of her twins, they are not Amish, although she used to have more contact with Amish people, she doesn’t much anymore. I just liked the way they looked in the fading sunlight and my wonderful boyfriend Arann strongly encouraged me to walk across the street and ask her if I could take her photo. So I did and she said ‘yes,’ and I am really grateful to Arann for the encouragement because that is exactly the support I need to build confidence for my upcoming Southern Exposure expedition. Thanks Arann.