Lancaster Winter Crop

An Amish team punches Fall soy seeds into the land.

Not a typical Fall scene lit by the neon colors of the season, huh?

Soy's harvested in late September then the crop seed's replanted in October for winter germination. At least that's how I understand it... and I don't understand enough about agriculture...Well not a lot more than it's greatest byproduct... beauty. Here - nearby to my home, a 6 mule team pulls a fall planting head across the soil just before the first snarls of winter paint the Pennsylvania leaves.

Geek Stuff: Captured by my Canon 20D through its faithful EF-S17-85mm glass, handheld of course, then processed in PSCC 2019 with help from some Topaz filters carefully brushed onto the appropriate spots to capture the sharp stubble and hairy tails. Oh... BTW - it is wrong to ever take a picture of an Amisher's face. We respect our neighbors around here - so I will never purposely do it, and if it happens accidentally, I trash those images.

But yet, do I need a face to convey a stoic muscularity of this man and team? While faces do reveal intricate personal stories... can they be any more expressive than this gentleman's shoulders and his freedom to go a distinctly individual direction in the face of a world-storm of technology?

My Amish neighbors simultaneously live among us, show a determined pride in their country, and live a successful and proudly religious life. Oh, and they also continue, for example, to invent and manufacture farm devices, employ cutting edge agronomics, all along with computer repair and maintenance projects which attract worldwide customers. Their detailed craftsmanship and quilting arts command international attention.

Yeah, they're a surprising culture, eh?

A REAL Photograph?

Click On The Image

It’s called by some
The Simple Life
What the Amish have.

On a Summer day
Riding Lancaster’s
Backroad farmland hills

I wonder if simple
Captures what it means
To live here like this?

Hmmm… Some have wondered if I still take “pictures”? I’m guessing they mean, photographs? In fact friends wonder if I can still take pictures? Okay… here are the basics, right? It looks like a picture, a photo… um… don’t you think? Of course, nothing is reeeeely as it looks, is it? :-)

Near Blue Ball, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Canon G10, PS4 (pano w/image merge 4 wide-angle pans), custom brushes

NOTE Okay... maybe I did move the barn, um, into the image, uh, along with its cow and pasture. But... but.. it's still a picture, right? And well, perhaps there were only a few of those orange flowers snapping open, but.. but.. well, there should have been more, huh? And yeah, the skyline could have been messed up with a few inconvenient buildings off in the distance. Well who has an appetitie for inconvenience anyway? Not me... nope. But... but... except for those tiny details and a tad of romanticizing the dynamic range and color palette... HEY... basically it's a photograph, huh?

Spring Breeze

<- Click here
Sunlight is gold,
Not golden.
Squint,
Dazzle,
Glare…

It’s the chore
Of Spring
Breeze cleaning
Whatever the
Nocturnals left
That’s flyable.

Amish Farm, Lancaster County, Pa
Cannon G10: PS4: Topaz, AlienSkin, SnapArt, Watercolor: Custom brushes & textures.

Wish You Were... Hear?

<- Click here
I'm wondering what comes between imagination and mumbling, "FINISHED!"

And I'm thinking that the crack between the two is where talent lives. "FINISHED!" is what you are capable of doing with what you imagine. Hmmm... do I mean 'talent' or do I mean skill? And where does creativity make its appearance? Suppose you can imagine a reslut but can't execute it.... reveal it. Or... or... is process where you actually discover the totality of your imagination? Hmmmm or its limits. Or...

Okay, my head's starting to burst....

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Took this on my bike ride last weekend not far from Willow Street. Now, Willow Street is not a street. It's a place outside of the City of Lancaster to the south east. Maybe six miles? And it's smack in the center of Amish country. And here's a piece of Amisher farm equipment that they tether to mules to work that field. Off to my right was a little red wagon filled with three Amish boys - who I could not picture because it simply not a nice thing to do. And the watched me, then waved as I biked off of their post card home place.


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GEEK STUFF: Canon G10. middle of the bright afternoon. PP with PS CS4, custom textures, Topaz and AlienSkin filters and personalized brushes.