Though I've taken many portraits, I've never taken pictures of the amish. I can remember traveling through PA as a boy with my family and driving through Amish country. At the time (in the mid-'60s) it was obvious the Amish wished not to have their picture taken. Perhaps that's changed some. There have been movies about the Amish (Harrison Ford was in 'Witness'), we have a picture book of Amish country with many pictures of Amish. Still, I felt ill at ease taking pictures. I used an f2.8, 80-200 lens to capture most of the shots and in most cases stood in the shadows shooting into bright light. It was somewhat difficult to capture the real beauty of the people but it felt good not to be "in their faces." Perhaps most striking about the Amish was that families obviously entrusted their livlihood to teenagers. very young people with the huge responsibility to take their produce to auction and get a good price so the family can live another day.
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