Submitted Photo The Audubon Community Nature Center is accepting entries in its 2026 Nature Photography Contest. With $1,600 in prize money, youth and adults compete in the categories of Close-ups, Wildlife in Action, and ACNC Outdoors. Pictured is 2025 Adult Single Bloom winner “Dragonfly on Waterlily” by Michael Weishan of Cattaraugus.

The Audubon Community Nature Center is accepting entries for its 2026 Nature Photography Contest.

With awards totaling $1,600, adults and youth (ages 8-18) can submit photos to three different categories, each paying $200 to the winning photo.

Cash prizes of $200 will also be awarded to the adult and youth photos receiving the most Community Choice votes online. A photo could receive both the Community Choice and a judged award.

Judges will choose the adult and youth winners as well as three honorable mentions in the following categories: Close-ups, Wildlife in Action, and ACNC Outdoors. All winners receive a $200 cash prize.

The Close-ups category celebrates the beauty of the “small stuff” that often goes unnoticed.

Wildlife in Action is all about movement, behavior, and the pulse of life, showing animals doing what they do best.

ACNC Outdoors is dedicated specifically to the beauty found within the trails, wetlands, and forests of Audubon Community Nature Center.

Winning and honorable mention photographs will be displayed on the contest website. ACNC will print the winning judged photos to exhibit in the Nature Center, and winners will be announced in a news release that is widely distributed, including to their local media when known.

Full details of the competition are at AudubonCNC.org/Photo-Contest, where you can submit photos, vote on entries, and see previous contest winners.

The sooner photographs are submitted, the longer the public can vote for them for the Community Choice awards. Photographers are reminded to encourage friends and family to vote for their photo(s). All the social media buttons are on the contest website for postings.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, June 30.

Audubon Community Nature Center is located at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren. Visit the nearly 600-acre nature preserve, look in on the live birds of prey, enjoy the natural play space, and hike, snowshoe or cross country ski over five miles of trails dawn until dusk daily for free.

The three-story Nature Center building houses interactive displays, a collection of live animals, the 2025 Nature Photography Contest winners, and the Blue Heron Gift Shop. Visitors are welcome Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Sundays, 1-4:30 p.m. Nature Center members and SNAP/EBT and Arts Access cardholders have free building admission daily. Building admission is also free Sundays for non-Nature Center members.

To learn more about Audubon and its many programs, call (716) 569-2345, find Audubon Community Nature Center on Facebook or Instagram, or visit AudubonCNC.org. Check out AudubonCNC.org/about for a quick fly-by.

Audubon Community Nature Center builds and nurtures connections between people and nature by providing positive outdoor experiences, opportunities to learn about and understand the natural world, and knowledge to act in environmentally responsible ways.