Big Valley in central Pennsylvania has many Amish farms. The Amish shun most modern technology, including electric power and cars. Therefore, their farms do not have power lines running to their houses and outbuildings. They use horse-drawn buggies that leave long, thin wheel tracks in their dirt farm lanes. The Amish also often keep large pastures for their horses and other livestock.
Their farms and the gently rolling hills of the valley floor make Big Valley one of my favorite places to photograph landscapes. This scene is one of my go-to places to photograph Big Valley, especially in autumn. The two dirt lanes leading to several Amish farms align with the setting sun in autumn, creating leading lines toward the sunset. The thin wheel tracks in the lanes subtly reinforce these leading lines. The large Amish farmstead at the end of the lanes provides a focal point toward the horizon, and the autumnal colors of the trees illuminated by golden light echo the sunset colors in the clouds.
I live only twenty minutes from this scene, so I have been to this spot many times to photograph sunsets, but seldom has the sky been as colorful as in this image.
