Following my visit to the Detroit Photographic community with Joe Buissink and friends, I headed south to the Indiana Amish community of Goshen and it’s suburbs. I have for years gone to Lancaster, Pa. to see and photograph some magnificent landscapes and pictorials. This was an entirely different community. They are a bit more open to advances in technology as it appears. They use ride along mowers, they have telephones at the edge of their property, that they share with neighbors and the best thing yet is that they seem to be ok with having photos taken. I’d like to share a few with you.
I got to meet an Amish boy named Joe. we stood and chatted for over an hour one afternoon. Upon leaving, he suggested that if I had time that I should stop over to meet his family. Three days later I did just that and sat talking with his Dad for over 4 hours. It was a delight and I look forward to going back to visit with my new friends. I hope that you enjoy these images!
and the final photo here finds me sitting in Joe’s family buggy. I have photographed the buggies for decades and til this day have never had the pleasure to be able to sit in one. It was a joy. I cannot wait to get back there and actually go for a ride!
We met for dinner after we all got into town to have a little fun and and fine tune our busy next day. With some special friends joining us, we could simply enjoy being together. Jim Collins, the CEO of Pictage, along with fellow Pictage heavyweight, Scott Anderson came to help make this happen, joined by the thoughtful Rachel Niesen LaCour from ShootQ, who brought copies of Robert Franks book to give along to 10 lucky recipients at the end of the seminar. Although things were a bit silly, it was wonderful to spend the evening with such a braintrust.
Joe came through with a wonderful motivational message for the attendees, as we would soon each get to share our thoughts with our hungry audience. Once we finished our individual contributions to the group, we all joined together in a town hall meeting, to answer questions that had been submitted during the registration process. We had 300 people register to join us for the days activities. Here are a few glimpses into each of the personalities as we sat close together on the stage in front of the audience. 
I had the fun of playing with capturing images as we all shared our opinions on the topics at hand, including our friends that came to join in on the education.
Jim Collins not only brought a generous gift from Pictage to each attendee, but he delivered a very thoughtful gift donated by Steve Sheanin, the owner of WPPI.
With all of the wonderful feelings exchanged, we had a great time sharing of ourselves and enjoying the grateful comments that were expressed as we finished! It was a fantastic day for all in attendance, as everyone left with a warm feeling in our hearts!
