Amish Lifestyle Travel and Tourism Photographer Buggy at Sunset Photo
Michael ONeill Photographer Writer Motorcyclist Adventurer
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Amish Lifestyle Travel and Tourism Photographer Buggy at Sunset Photo

Surely the most photographed subject, by travelers who visit The Amish Country in Pennsylvania, are the shots of Amish buggies moving through the beautiful rural landscape of Lancaster County. You will see a number of these shots right here on my very own web site. Nothing conjures up most people’s idea of the Amish lifestyle quite like these simple horse drawn carriages making their way about the farmland, traveling alongside the more conventional and contemporary motor vehicles on the byways. I have been a regular visitor to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area; home to a large Amish and Mennonite population, during my many journeys as a long distance motorcycle traveler, photographer, writer, adventurer and author. In 2021 alone I made three separate visits to the Amish Country aboard my BMW F800GT sport touring motorcycle, and spent a good amount of time out in the remote rural farm areas creating images of the Amish lifestyle: Buggies moving along the back roads, farmers working out in their fields with horse drawn farm equipment and families gathered together at sunset after a hard day’s work. This image was captured near the small village of Bird-In-Hand, PA on a summer evening. I picked out a spot on the side of the road with a view across a field towards the setting sun and didn’t have to wait long for an Amish buggy to come along. As it reached the perfect spot I released the shutter on my Nikon mirrorless camera fitted with a wide angle Nikkor zoom lens to capture the image. A tip to those who may want to create similar photographs: The Amish horses, as accustomed as they are to sharing the roads with cars, trucks and the like; are very leery of people standing on the side of the road. You should avoid standing at the side of the road where they are forced to pass by you as some of these well-trained animals can react badly to the presence of pedestrians. This photograph was captured from a fairly close distance but I had hidden myself behind a barrier at the side of the road. The digital image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop software to yield the finished image you see here. The "digital darkroom" used to post process my images travels with me everywhere in the form of an Apple MacBook Pro laptop computer. A few of the back stories behind my trips to the Amish country in Pennsylvania are in my Amazon #1 bestselling road travel book; "Road Work: Images and Insights of a Modern Day Explorer", which is available in paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon; and is also available on Apple Books for IOS devices. As a photographer who creates content for the travel and hospitality industry I love visiting the Amish country of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. The beauty of the landscape and the customs of the wonderful Amish and Mennonite cultures are a photographer’s delight. As an adventure motorcyclist the area has it’s charms, too. Though the farm roads are often long and straight, they are sparsely traveled and offer wonderfully scenic views as they span the gentle hills and rolling terrain of the southeast Pennsylvania Amish country. Many of the photographs I take during my adventure motorcycle travels around the United States and Canada ultimately get sold or leased as stock photographs to editorial, advertising and marketing professionals in the tourism and hospitality industries. If you are looking for a specific image for your next travel and hospitality industry creative project please take a look around my web site for any photograph that might fill your needs. In the absence of the perfect photo, give me a call. I may have just what you are looking for in my extensive body of professional stock photographic work. If not, I’m always looking for any reason to climb aboard my BMW motorcycle and travel to any wonderful destination in the US or Canada on assignment.