Just an hour west of Athens, 17 acres of trails, rock formations and waterfalls beckon nature lovers from all over the nation to a place known as Hocking Hills State Park.
Among these nature lovers are photographers wanting to take advantage of the natural beauty the state park has to offer.
The Shoot the Hills Photography Contest, an official fundraiser of the Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park, is a three-day event whose goal is to educate people about Logan’s Hocking Hills region and help preserve the natural features, said Jerry Jividen, the president of Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park and a founder of Shoot the Hills.
The contest, which is in its 11th year, features a print contest and six digital categories: wildlife, flora, landscape, human interest in nature, abstracts in nature, and photographer’s choice.
The photographers have 24 hours, starting Friday at noon, to shoot whatever types of photos they want and can submit a total of five photos to be judged by professional photographers during Sunday’s award ceremony.
“The fun part of the contest is that you get to shoot nature photos and are judged by your own peers,” said Marcia Nighswander, professor of photojournalism at Ohio University. “You don’t make a living off of nature photography, but you love it.”
Nighswander had the opportunity to judge the contest twice within the last five years.
“One of our graduate students, Alex Snyder, helps set the contest up, and he asked me if I wanted to judge it again last year,” Nighswander said. “It’s always so much fun to see the amazing photography produced in 24 hours, so I said yes.”
Alex Snyder, a graduate student studying visual communications and interactive multimedia, first entered the competition when he was 13 years old, and after winning the grand prize in the adult division at 18, joined the Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park board.
Although Hocking Hills is one of Ohio’s most diverse regions, Snyder said many students have never heard of the area and few participate in the contest.
“I would love to see the number of OU students grow,” he said. “It’ll take a few years to get more students involved, but we have so many dedicated people, that it can happen.”
ao007510@ohiou.edu
