I live in an area famous for its large Amish population. My uncle, knowing this, wondered why I hadn't posted on this theme yet. Two reasons: One, most Amish find that being photographed is a violation of the Biblical restriction against graven images, and two, because tourists pester them constantly and I feel guilty adding to an already serious annoyance. We were in the southern part of the county, in the car, when I took this picture. The Amishman was not inconvenienced by this shot, and remains unidentifiable, so I feel relatively guilt-free over this photo.
Because farmland is scarce, many of the younger generation of Amish have gone into woodworking. Most still work with their hands, using traditional methods and hydraulic tools. Some even work for regular "English" construction crews. ("English" is the term used locally to mean non-Amish folks.) Many congregations allow the use of modern technology, such as cellular phones, computers, calculators, and other electronic equipment, as long as the item is a tool needed to do a job. Such items are always prohibited in the home, and cannot be used outside the context of work. Needless to say, how the Amish deal with the modern world is fascinating.
For more information on the Amish and photographs, go
here. For general information,
here is a good start.
Not your normal warm & fuzzy critter, but he held still long enough to get a few good macro pictures, so he made the blog :) The little guy was hanging out on the road by my parent's driveway. He was probably about the size of a dime. Mom & I were excited by some Myrtle warblers in the neighbor's poplar trees and could've easily stomped the spider underfoot. I'm glad we didn't! I was surprised, because he was "facing off" with the camera lens, instead of turning tail and trying to hide.
Because farmland is scarce, many of the younger generation of Amish have gone into woodworking. Most still work with their hands, using traditional methods and hydraulic tools. Some even work for regular "English" construction crews. ("English" is the term used locally to mean non-Amish folks.) Many congregations allow the use of modern technology, such as cellular phones, computers, calculators, and other electronic equipment, as long as the item is a tool needed to do a job. Such items are always prohibited in the home, and cannot be used outside the context of work. Needless to say, how the Amish deal with the modern world is fascinating.
Although I took this picture in August, already a leaf had turned red and fallen into a pond in Caledonia State Park. I liked the leaf in the water, a floating punch of color. But then my camera autofocused on the surface of the water instead of the leaf underneath, and a new picture formed, all by chance. The watercolor effect superimposed on the reflections of leaves still on the tree attracted me, and here is the end result:
Last weekend, I took a page out of Salty's book and went on a morning walk. And voila! A beautiful dewy daisy crossed my path. Morning was working its magic, but mostly on the grass. This was the only dew-encrusted posey I found.