Scioto River – RDZ Photography

Central Ohio – September 2020 – Views from Above Part 2

Architecture, History, Nature, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

Part 2 of the Drone Views of Central focus more on structures.

Up first is the Perkins Observatory near the city of Delaware, Ohio. Completed in the 1920s it once had the 3rd largest telescope in the world, but they discovered Ohio’s cloudy weather, and light pollution from Columbus made it impractical.

The Delaware tour continues with the football stadium for the small college called Ohio Wesleyan. It too dates from the 1920s – with the claim to fame that all 9000 seats are between the 15 yard lines.

The Delaware County Fairgrounds is home to one of the largest harness races in the country with the Little Brown Jug. The race will occur this year, without spectators.

Somewhat of a continuation of the posting from earlier this year of Columbus Sports Venues is this birds eye view of a few of them, starting with the vacant and partially torn down former Cooper baseball stadium.

From above it is easy to see the outline of the field. The stands continued around the first base side – but were torn down years ago.

Not far away is the new stadium, Huntington Park.

The Ohio State Fairgrounds is home to Mapre Stadium – the Columbus Crew soccer stadium.

The new stadium is under construction just down the street from Huntington Park.

All over town you see ‘brown field in fills’, taking either vacant in town property or tearing down existing structures to build new apartments and condos.

Another brown field redevelopment near Grandview Heights.

Even suburban Dublin, Ohio has gotten into this, with this large new area called Bridge Park replacing a car dealership and shopping center.

A park in Dublin is home to Chief Leatherlips, who was a renown leader of the local Wyandot. This interesting sculpture of him goes down the side of a hill.

O’Saughnessy Dam and Bridge – This is one of my favorite of the recent drone photos.

In this part of Ohio we grow plastic houses in our fields.

The confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. Clearly low water season.

From Bicentennial Park. The building on the left of the river is Center of Science and Industry (AKA – COSI).

The drone does provide some nice views of the bridges and buildings.

German Village is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in town – but tough to shoot with the drone because of all of the trees.

I will recreate later in fall after the leaves drop.

We end up in suburbia – with the distant view of the skyline of downtown along the horizon.

Columbus – September 2018 – Water Lantern Festival

Festival, Nature, Sciences

The Scioto River in downtown Columbus was the scene of a ‘Water Lantern Festival’. This festival’s goal is to celebrate life and inspire the human spirit (in a non religious way)

We arrived as the sunset was just beginning to set, which was a treat in and of itself.

There were lots of people sitting in the promenade writing personal messages on their lanterns.

People from all walks of life were participating.

Each had purchased a lantern and a kit to decorate them, along with the candle.

Some were kind enough to share their messages with me.

We crossed the river as is continued to get dark for a view with the buildings as the background.

The Town Street Bridge with it’s subtle lighting.

The view of the crowd and buildings was magnificent, but we quickly realized the city lights reflecting in the river made it impossible to really pick out the lanterns as the first ones were launched.

So we returned back across the river and watch the participants bring their lanterns to the shore.

It was also apparent that most were being pushed along the wall.

We made our way to the river’s edge where they were being launched.

It was a beautiful scene,

Some families sent theirs out in groups.

Many had message dedicated to people who had passed away, but some were just wishing others, and the world, good will.

The view from the river level was really cool.

A large crowd gathered on the Broad Street Bridge to watch.

The event was to take place a few weeks ago, but that entire weekend it poured rain. This evening was perfect weather.

From above the wall you can see the candles in each lantern.

The view from the Town Street Bridge (and with a good zoom) showed the line down the hill, and the previously launched ones.

The lanterns with lights from a nearby building reflecting in the water.

It was a peaceful scene, with the music and people enjoying their lanterns with messages of hope or tribute.

A great ending to a busy Saturday.

Columbus – August 2017 – Not the Normal Tourist Photos

Architecture, Nature, Transportation

The Scioto River runs through the middle of Columbus, and recently they have completed some fantastic improvements where the riverbanks are usable by people. This has lead to it becoming a favorite for residents and visitors alike. While downtown we took a long hike, which I focused on the less than standard tourist photos.

Symmetry in the supports for the freeway bridge across the river

A wildlife preserve just south of downtown

A railroad bridge crosses the path about 10′ above it.

One of my favorite subjects is photos of people taking photos – especially in strange places such as on the railroad bridge (or in this case, just off since the train was coming through)