Can’t decide between taking a hike or visiting a farm? Stratford is your place! Hike the wooded 4-mile trail, hunt for frogs and salamanders in the swamp, interact with farm animals, tend the garden, use an apple press to make cider, and so much more.
Update: Stratford Photography Club is live! It meets the third Thursday of each month, and it’s $10/year to join.
Continue reading Stratford Ecological Center & State Nature Preserve
If you’re looking for a shooting location downtown with a lot of variety, head straight to Scioto Audubon! Located on the Scioto River just south of downtown, it’s the newest Metro Park. Looking north, there’s a great view of the Columbus skyline. Facing south, it’s all trees and river.
If you’re looking to walk through a forest to take pictures of flora and fauna, you could certainly do worse than Blacklick Woods Metro Park. The park boasts a variety of habitats, including forests, swamps, ponds, and meadows. Covering over 600 acres, there’s plenty of room for critters to roam. Depending on the time of year, you might come across owls and other birds of prey, coyotes, deer, frogs, turtles, and more. This is definitely a good place to bring a long zoom lens. Continue reading Blacklick Woods
What seems to be the biggest focus at Blendon Woods? Birds. They have a variety of protected habitats for our flying friends, as well as excellent spots from which to observe and photograph them. Continue reading Blendon Woods Metro Park
Where to begin? The metro parks are a wonderful collection of 17 parks in and around the Columbus area, spanning seven counties. Each park is full of photographic opportunities, and is endlessly fun to wander, regardless of the season. Their facilities and programs are free, thanks to a 2009 levy.
Each park is unique in its own way, offering walking/riding/pet trails, nature centers, wildlife refuges, educational programs, and an array of options to get closer to nature—and photograph it, of course! Continue reading Metro Parks
Go
4850 West Powell Road
Powell, OH 43065
Park Map (PDF)
Hours
Hours vary depending on the time of year. See the full list.
Confirm hours for a particular day on their events page.
Very generally, their daily hours are:
Open: between 9 and 10 am.
Close: between 4 and 7 pm. Continue reading Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Go
1777 E Broad Street
Columbus, Oh 43203
Hours
Daily: 10 am – 5 pm
Hours may vary for events and exhibits.
