Hardin County, Ohio

One of our site visitors captured a few serene scenes from Hardin County, Ohio's Amish country. I'd be remiss to not address photo etiquette here.  I've discussed this topic in-depth before and won't rehash it all here now, so let's boil it down: "golden rule."  If you wouldn't want to be photographed in a certain situation, don't do it with others.  With this particular photo I probably would not have taken it.  Just a bit too close of quarters for comfort, but it's a judgment call and I know the photographer wasn't meaning to be intrusive.  And, in this case, the reader thought she was getting a photo from behind but some of the children turned turned towards the camera at the last second. So I cropped off faces and we are left with a nice illustration of a Sunday walk from church.  The girl is barefoot on the hot September asphalt.  I'm posting the photo because I think there's just something very soothing about it, the photo captures family, faith, simplicity all in one swoop shot.

The Amish community is growing in Hardin County.  It's a pretty conservative community in the Pfieffer Station area where these photos were shot.  Not too far away is the more "liberal" New Order Amish community in Belle Center.

Note the back of the buggies do not have orange safety triangles, just grey reflective strips.  These grey (or is gray?) strips actually do a pretty decent job of illuminating the backs of buggies during the dark.  But the lack of a triangle is a good indicator of how conservative the settlement is.  It is not, however, a Swartzentruber Amish community.

And lastly we have a shot of a new school.  Definitely not the more "ornate" kinds we see elsewhere with stairs to the front door and a cupola on top, just a very bare-bones basics, no frills school.