Highbanks Metro Park is a beautiful forest park here in Ohio! I love visiting Highbanks with my camera, especially when autumn starts to transform the trees. It’s been integral to sharpening my nature photography skills.

One of my favorite photography spots at Highbanks is a “corridor” of trees near the nature center, by the start of the Dripping Rock footpath. The trees align perfectly with the setting sun, creating many spots of soft dappled sunlight.

I got an incredibly lucky shot of the “corridor” in late October ’24:

A vertical picture of a tree "corridor" in late October lit with dappled spots of sunlight, the trees almost entirely orange-leaved.
10/24/2025

I gave myself a goal for autumn ’25: to capture shots of the “corridor” throughout the season to see how it changes. I had so much fun getting these pictures!

Autumnal Transformations

Here are the shots of the “corridor” I took, starting in mid-September. It’s so fascinating to me to see how both the leaves changed color, and the sunlight gradually turned warmer as the days went by.

  • A picture of dappled spots of sunlight across a "corridor" of green-leaved trees in a forest, a few splashes of orange signaling the coming of autumn.
    9/14/2025
  • Warm spots of sunlight scattered throughout a "corridor" of green-leaved trees.
    9/29/2025
  • Soft sunlight across a verdant tree "corridor".
    10/10/2025
  • Soft spots of sunlight across a tree "corridor", the green leaves mixed with yellows.
    10/20/2025
  • Warm evening sunlight across a bare tree "corridor" in mid-November, a beautiful but somber reminder of the end of autumn.
    11/13/2025

Something I noticed while writing this blog post was the prominent color change between the 10/10 and 10/20 pictures. Ohio experienced a prolonged, severe drought in autumn ’25, and it appears those dry conditions delayed the onset of peak fall colors. This is especially noticeable when I remember that the vibrant orange colors from my ’24 picture were from 10/24.

That comparison also hammers home to me one of the more tragic truths about nature photography: while beautiful moments can be captured, they can’t be recreated in their entirety.

I’ll always love the vertical version of the “corridor” I got in 2024. But I’m also glad I chose to do all of these horizontally! This angle did an excellent job capturing the spots of sunlight across the scene in each image.

If you ever visit Highbanks, I highly recommend pausing to observe this area. It’s so peaceful there, no matter the time of year.

From my 10/20/2025 visit

All Images and Video by Connor Brennan

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