I have always had a great respect for the Amish and their way of life, and even though they are not big fans of being photographed, I continue to capture the images that present themselves. I have seen so many things in the Amish community over the years,and I have countless memories of those experiences. The Amish have problems just like the rest of the world, and they have some very friendly characters and some unfriendly ones as well. I have watched younger kids get the greatest joy out of the simplest things, and know they are usually more content with an old tattered item than the person who has every electronic gadget. I have been invited onto hay wagons to shoot at harvest time, as long as faces are not shown, and have seen empty beer bottles flying out of buggies while a boom box blares inside. Hopefully I can share more stories and images of my experiences in the future. This buggy/ hat rack was captured a while ago on a sunday drive in the country, shortly after the men headed inside the barn to begin worship. I took this with a long lens from the road, but the day I took this, a tourist with a little point and shoot pulled up, got out and was on his way to the barn door when I basically told him to get the heck off the property. He must have figured it was some sort of scene that was staged for tourists. This was really the only buggy that everyone seemed to pick to place his hat, and looking at the shot now, I counted 32 hats scattered about.