Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 16th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)
I know a lot of photo contests with nature as the main theme were/are/will be hosted by various people on the Hive blockchain but I wanted to come up with something more than just another photo contest where participants would submit their best natural photos. Therefore, I decided to go for quite an unusual concept that I am going to introduce in the following lines.
The aim of the Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun photo challenge is not to make you dig up your photo archives and submit the best pictures of nature that you have ever taken. Instead, I want you guys go out and appreciate the beauty of our nature right now.
The internet (and the Hive blockchain as well) is flooded with picture perfect shots of landscapes, mountains, forests, beaches etc. taken years ago. But this is not what I want to see in this challenge. I want to see shots that may not be necessarily stunning but they must be fresh, proving that you have just physically spent some time outdoors in the fresh air. But remember that nature comes in many forms. It doesn´t have to be a pristine jungle or a deep remote forest. An urban park, a botanical garden, a little grove on the outskirts of your town - pretty much any place with some trees, plants, rocks, bodies of water or any other natural features would be just as fine ;)
Obviously, there is no way for me to verify whether the photo that you submit in the challenge is really fresh or if it was even taken by you so I am relying on your honesty guys. The prizes for the winners (as described below) are more symbolical than overly motivating so I don´t expect too much fraudulent behavior in this challenge anyway.
I want to keep the rules of this challenge as simple and benevolent as possible so let´s agree on just this:
Only one entry per person per round.
The photo must be yours and not older than one week.
Add a few words about the photo, at least where and when you took it.
You can start submitting your entries to this round from now until the next round. Prior to publishing the next round post, I will pick 3 winners, give my full upvote on their entries and feature them in the next round of the challenge. As long as the response is not too overwhelming, I will also try to give some smaller upvotes on all of the other entries to reward all participants.
I might change the concept and/or the rules of the photo challenge later on, depending on how things go. Also, I haven´t reserved a fixed day for this challenge yet so it might be movable but it will definitely be hosted once every week.
To keep up with you guys, I submit my own fresh natural photo to every round´s post too :) Here is my contribution to start out this round.
I took this shot of Ilheu de Rosto de Cao, an impressive rock formation of volcanic origin that can be found here in Ponta Delgada, the capital city of the Sao Miguel Island, just a few days ago. It was a rainy day and the cliffs were very slippery but I managed to get down almost to the sea surface level to capture the landmark from this unusual angle, showing the clarity of the water. The black dots on the stones are actually sea urchins :)
In the last round, we had 11 participants so picking those 3 winners was not as easy as in some of the previous rounds but after some thorough consideration, I made my choice :)
The winners are:
@jjprac with this entry:
Lately, it has been difficult to find a field in the Czech Republic where it would not be just oilseed rape. I found one yesterday near the village of Stýskaly in the Plzeň-sever district. The life-giving grain that will bring us bread.
@christina-madart with this entry:
Greetings from Greece @phortun and thank you for the wonderful challenge, posts and pictures! I also want to thank @katerinaramm for sharing this challenge, because that's where I found you from! Here is my entry, taken two days before in an outskirts region outside Thessaloniki, Plagiari (no, there is no connection with plagiarism on the name, although they're an "sm" away! 😹)! I hope you will enjoy it and I will be back next week for the following one! Congratulations to the previous winners and good luck to everyone on this one!
@katerinaramm with this entry:
What a wonderful challenge! I followed you, I am so impressed that there are so many people here discussing nature - I would never thought about it when I first started exploring/discovering/getting lost in nature around me :) This image is a close-up of a dandelion, ready to fly away and give away hundreds of wishes to the world :) On it, we see some tiny little creatures of something (that I really dont know yet what they will grow to become). I was so impressed that I wanted to take a photograph. The place is a small seaside village in Crete, Greece. I am near the sea and also near the country side :)
Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries :)
I am looking forward to what you will come up with in this round.
Have fun and appreciate the beauty of nature!
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
Sorry @phortun missed last week but i am back this week with this huge spiral Banyan tree with these long vines hanging down growing in this narrow pathway and launching itself all over this spooky haunted abandon house as if it is protecting this spooky haunted abandon house.
Wow, that´s a spectacular shot :) Such a giant. Where and when you took this impressive photo?
Thank you @phortun i took this shot in Bangkok city walking along the river canal on my walk last Wednesday , i am going to do a #treetuesday on this tree on thIS coming Tuesday 👍
I am very amazed with sunsets. And this was taken one lazy afternoon last week.
This was taken at our balcony, at Palo, Leyte, Philippines. The sunset was like a blazing fire, and I am so happy I captured it! 😍
Wonderful scenery conjured up by Mother Nature herself :) Thank you for your contribution.
Thank you @phortun. 😊
I love your challenge!
I am not sure if this could be an entry, but it could be a reminder for us to recycle, to reduce our waste and to be more careful about what we do/throw to our planet...
Today is World Environment Day, our Planet we share together. Let’s respect it every time 🙏💙
Very important message with this entry, thank you so much :) I think this particular challenge attracts mostly people who are true nature lovers and thus care about our environment. We just need to raise awareness and get more people on our side :)
Yes, that is entirely correct my friend :)
Have a lovely weekend!
Thanks :) You too.
Thank you very much for awarding me @phortun and congratulations too @jjprac & @katerinaramm! Awesome entries!
This week I will go with a photo less stunning, but very expressive of the moment! Less wild nature is visible, because I am in my village, Galatista, Chalkidiki (you can see the mountains on the background though). It was taken last Sunday, when a strong and loud storm broke out just when I was about to leave.
Here I am at my mother's car, driving to the bus stop. Thankfully the bus came with no problems and after 10 minutes of driving we were in sunny shiny places again!
Good luck and wishes for a great Friday & Weekend to everyone!
PS. @phortun , the shot of Ilheu de Rosto de Cao is breathtaking! I really wish I will be able to travel to such places as well sometime!
Beautiful entry!!! Congrats and good luck!!
Thank you very much @katerinaramm ! Good luck with your photo too, I love and totally agree with the message. Wish we could find out more ways to protect the environment and help others understand the need to respect it, it is sad that it is not a given for everyone.
Ha, this must be the first photo in this contest that was taken through a car window :D Interesting one. Thanks for sharing it with us. Also, thanks for your nice words about my own contribution to this round, people usually pay no attention to it :D I appreciate it.
Thank you too @phortun! Haha, yes, I deliberately chose it over others because it was a very intense moment with all this rain pouring on us and I thought that's something different from the open field ones I got!
You're welcome, your photos are really great, I also loved the one that you had on your previous post! 🌞
Thank you :) Good luck for your entry ;)
You're welcome @jjprac and thank you too! 😺
Kdy se chystáš domů? Podívej, co pěkného se už dá v lese potkat :-). Dnešní snímek les východně od Českých Budějovic.
No teda, to jsou věci :) Už takhle na začátku června, jo? No za pár dní si to budu moct osobně ověřit ;)
Kováři tu rostou tak od půlky června. Je teplo a posledních pár dní také dostatek vláhy, takže začaly růst o něco dříve :-)
Paráda :) To se zase těším o něco víc :)
8-)
My nature has not been far away from the boundaries of my home. Sometimes I step out for fresh air and the sun. This one is near my home, beautiful as ever. Before I took them inside on a sugar can to keep them fresh.
I took the photo last week near my home in New Jersey
Thanks for your entry. Can you just add where and when you took this shot please?
Sure 👍
Thank you so much for this wonderful gift and congratulations to everyone!
My pleasure Katerina :) See you in this round.
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know every user has their own profile map?
And so does every post as well!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Děkuji za ocenění ;-)
Rádo se stalo :)