An A-mazing Saturday.

Went to the Sussex Sunflower Maze with a photography group on Saturday. I carpooled with another member of the group and we arrived at around 11:40a.m.. The day was perfect and we all fanned out amongst the amazing field of golden flowers on solid hairy green stalks. The flowers weren't as tall as they could have been, but that did not detract from their beauty. The insects that visited the flowers and field buzzed or hopped around and posed for random vacation shots.

The photography group was about ten people strong and though, spread out, we all had the same goal. Take great shots in the maze and of the surrounding farms. It was a new experience for me. I am so used to packing up my gear and taking short trips with the girls or alone, that being around real photographers made me try to, 'bring up my game'.

I kept alert and planned my shots carefully. Not having a tripod, I had to use my flash, more often than I liked.

The group met up for lunch and we stopped at a roadside cafe style restaurant. When lunch was done we traveled down the main road looking for unique farms and scenery to shoot. Four of us joined together and we ended up at a farm called the castle. The castle was a unique structure. Outside, and away from the building, were four run down silos. The building itself was a burned out, decrepit piece of interesting architecture with an all rock silo attached. In it's hay day (pardon the pun), it must have been a bustling dairy farm.

One of the photographers and I decide to venture through the tall grass and to an opening in the now dying structure. Walking through garbage, we found the inside of the building was filled with chain-ups, piping, cleaning channels and troughs. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed under foliage that invaded the floor above. We explored further and the other photographer found the door to the stone silo. Inside the silo was magical. A plant had grown up the far wall into a tree like aberration. Looking up, I felt like the boy who fell down the well, Sadly, Lassie had probably died years ago.

Returning to the, once, working part of the dairy, my mind struggled to reconstruct the past. As the visions slowly dissipated, the reality became sullen. A piece of amazing architecture; a piece of amazing history; a piece of America was dying slowly and no one was there to save or protect it from the inevitability of obsolescence.

Exiting the old building, my heart screamed, “Where are the keepers of Americana? Where are those government farm subsidies. Where are the mom and pop farmers that got up with sunrise and worked until sunset feeding our nation with not only food, but with pride?”. In the rattling of empty silos, and bustling of overgrowth, the answer was carried back, “Industrial food suppliers were the fire burning down the amazing structure once known as the farming industry.”

We made our way back to the cars and drove farther seeing farm casualties along the way. Even the next farm would have looked abandoned, if not for a couple of horses and a cow, out in an overgrown field. Some newer farm equipment looked out of place against the backdrop of broken unpainted wood and slanting foundations.

The day ended with a car show. The last of the group to leave stopped for a bite and some refreshments. We laughed and talked until it was time to head back towards home.

Seeing the other photographers pictures was interesting. There were so many great shots. Some very unique and others, slight variations on a theme. The experience was a learning one for me. I learned a lot about style, technique and some of my photographic inadequacies. I made friends and will be going on more of these group trips, as they become available. It was a day I learned a lot and any day you can say that about is a great day.