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Don Shenk has established himself as the area’s foremost scenic chronicler, writes ART PETROSEMOLO
Photographer Don Shenk captures scenes from Lancaster County.
Images of Lancaster County, its rolling hills, stunning farmland and farmhouses, and, off the main roads, a horse and buggy lifestyle brings visitors year-round to this south-central Pennsylvania community that dates its Amish and Mennonite heritage to the 1720s.
Shops throughout Lancaster sell thousands of postcards and photo books to tourists who want to relive memories of their exploration of Lancaster and its German, Pennsylvania Dutch and Anabaptist heritage.
Don Shenk, 76, a lifelong area resident, is probably the area’s veteran scenic chronicler of its farm and Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. His images of Old Order Amish have appeared in newspapers, books, magazines and online.
A lifelong member of the volunteer New Danville Fire Company and Central Manor Church, Mr. Shenk spent nearly 20 years on the staff of Lancaster Youth for Christ and had a second career supporting the construction industry with a lumber company. He is a selftaught photographer and honed his skills photographing for the church and fire company, and always loved photographing Lancaster County’s seasons with their changing colors and light. His photos are described as a realistic portrait of a culture that lives and works in the 21st century but maintains many traditions from an earlier time.
Mr. Shenk started taking photos more than a half-century ago with a Minolta camera with manual controls for exposure and shutter speed. “It was a step up from the basic Kodak film camera available and it served me well for decades.” He switched to a Canon film camera mid-career he explains. “I loved taking color slides of the countryside and of Amish farmers and I must have exposed thousands of slides with Kodachrome and Ektachrome film.” A longtime Millersville, Pa., resident, Mr. Shenk now lives in rural Martic Township, south of Lancaster City, in the midst of many of the farms he has photographed for years.
The transition to digital photography came only recently for Mr. Shenk. He transitioned to a Canon SLR digital camera in 2009 and always carries two — one with a wide-angle, or standard lens, and a second with a mid-range telephoto lens — in his truck every day.
But Mr. Shenk remains an oldschool photographer, working into the right location to take his photos, picking a lens aperture and speed long before he presses a shutter button. While most professional photographers expose images in a RAW format to give them more latitude in editing, Mr. Shenk says his goal is to get the image right the first time — and he usually does.
“Today, everyone has a digital camera,” Mr. Shenk explains, “and they can take hundreds of photos in minutes and then pick just a few they like while reviewing and adjusting them in computer software programs like Adobe Photoshop.”
Mr. Shenk didn’t even have a computer to review his images until 2009 when he started photographing digitally. He has been happy making minimal adjustments, such as cropping or altering the exposure, with the basic Photos app that came with his Apple computer.
While many modern photographers back up their images with removable hard drives or purchase “cloud storage,” Mr. Shenk saves his in-camera memory cards as his photo library. “I probably should get a storage hard drive or explore the cloud a little more,” Mr. Shenk admits, “but this has worked well for me since I started working with a digital format and I believe if it isn’t broke, there is no reason to fix it.”
Mr. Shenk never ceases to be struck by the beauty of his Lancaster County surroundings. He says he sees something new almost every day he is out in his truck and he has his cameras ready to record it.
“Photographing Amish farmers or families has changed considerably in the decades I have taken their photos,” Mr. Shenk says. He explains that years ago, many in the Amish community would say “no photos,” or kids would wave their hands in front of their faces as soon as they saw your camera.
“Today,” Mr. Shenk smiles, “if you talk to them first and they know you will not take their portrait but photograph them working or playing, most times they will say OK or nod.”
Mr. Shenk calls himself a “shooter,” meaning that he doesn’t own a photo printer to make prints of his images. He says, “If I want a print, I have to send it to a photo processing business just like the tourists.”
But unlike most tourists, Mr. Shenk has had two photo books published recently by Schiffer Publishing, based in Atglen, Pa. The first book, “Seasons of Lancaster County: Home to the World’s Largest Amish Community,” is a hardcover, coffee table book with more than 100 images of the area’s four seasons, including photos of Plain Community work and play ranging from spring farm preparations to fall harvest.
The second book, “Lancaster County: A Keepsake,” is a compact, 6-inch square book — part of the publisher’s series on tourist locations — which includes scenes from the Susquehanna River through Lancaster’s Amish farm country to traditional farm markets.
Both books are available at bookstores, online or directly from the publisher.
Mr. Shenk’s work was recently featured in the July/August issue of Pennsylvania Magazine. “I had been recognized for my work in their past photo contests,” he says, “and I suggested a story for them on the Amish wheat harvest, and I did both the photos and the text for the multipage spread.” Mr. Shenk spent two days in the field on a hot summer day to capture the work.
“Many times,” Mr. Shenk says, “it can get so hot that I photograph through the open windows of my truck.”
In thumbing through his books,
Mr. Shenk likes to recall the stories behind some of his most memorable photos. One photo in particular made him howl with laughter.
“I was taking photos of Amish children fishing in a pond in the southern part of the county several years ago when a woman who said she was from New York City reprimanded me for taking photos of the Amish,” he says. “She said if I wanted photos of the Amish, I should buy one of the books with their photos printed. I answered her by telling her I agreed wholeheartedly and I actually was taking photos for one of those books. She didn’t have an answer and walked away.”
Unlike most photographers, Mr. Shenk does not have a website, so you can’t review or purchase his work. “I just don’t want to get into that,” he says. “My photos appear in books and have been used by advertising agencies working with a number of Lancaster tourist sites and that’s good for me.”
A charter member of the Lancaster Camera Club, he takes photos now mostly for himself, recording the unique culture of Lancaster County and its Plain Community residents and, he says, “I have no intention of stopping.”