Photo taken by contributor Michael Ross, a 58-year-old man from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Michael has struggled with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder for most of his life. Photography helps him deal with the daily struggles, but sometimes becomes a battle of perfectionism.

About this photo: “Recently at 3am I decided to go to the Reading Pagoda in Pennsylvania to take a photo of the building all lit up. It’s at the top of a hill in a very bad area. When I finally got there I saw a crowd of people blasting music and throwing bottles over the cliff. I wanted the photo more than I wanted to run away in fear so I got out to look around.

Suddenly they all started to leave when one guy looked at me and screamed: YO YOU SNITCHED! I waited to see if he was going to shoot me but two cop cars rolled in with lights flashing. They told me to leave too but I convinced them to let me take a few shots since I drove almost an hour to get there.

The lesson I took from this is to go to the places that scare you, just not the Reading Pagoda alone at 4:00 in the morning on a Saturday night.”

Find more from Michael at his blog.

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