Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 130th 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 to 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 (photo) 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 in the comment section below 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. I usually host the challenge on Thursday but when needed for some reason, I can host it on some other day so better check my blog regularly not to miss out on it ;)
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 was hiking around the Prokop Valley, one of my favorite natural places here in Prague, Czech Republic when I noticed that a part of the nearby hills was enclosed with some fencing and that there were sheep and goats inside of the enclosure. Turned out to be a great idea. The animals can enjoy some nice relaxing time in nature while "cutting the grass", which would otherwise have to be done at the municipal expense. Oh and it´s also an interesting attraction for the kids who can thus see animals that they usually don´t have a chance to see in the city :) Obviously, the sheep don´t mind the audience. Quite the opposite actually. This little curious wooly fella even came to check me out, striking this cool pose for my camera :) Photo taken last Sunday.
In the last round, we had 6 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@stayoutoftherz with this entry from Austria:
Great initaitive. Here is my entry. While I was cutting a rosebush in our garden (Vienna, Austria), just 3h ago, I stumbled over this creature. It jumped off the rosebush and landed on another plant, patiently allowing to take a picture. I like the texture of its body. How well disguised it is as a leaf, isn´t it.
@chanmaly with this entry from Laos:
Hi!!! This is the sunset at Luangprabang Lao PDR by @chanmaly This photo was taken at the Mekong River in Luang Prabang on August 5, 2022. Took a sunset picture while driving through this area.
@friendlymoose with this entry from Italy:
I missed a few rounds due to my holiday. In two days we'll be heading home again. What a wonderful winning shots you chose last round @phortun. I've taken this shot of a damselfly today along a small stream near the campsite were staying here in Tuscany, Italy.
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!
I post this series in the Amazing Nature community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
Hey @phortun. I finally have a fresh picture for an entry lol. I took this picture this afternoon on my way for a lecture. There was a man spraying his rice field in a distance, the clouds are beautiful and the rice field looked amazing! I hope you like this picture:)
I like it so much I’m using it as my wallpaper right now🙂
Edit:
Location: Navrongo, Ghana.
That´s a very nice shot indeed, thank you :) Can you just add the location please?
Done!:)
Hi there! Last weekend, I caught our cat casually resting in our garden (located somewhere in Czechia). Name of this pet is Princess. Meow?!
Princess is a cutie! Thanks for your entry :)
Ok, this one I did take this week. It's a worker's puppy. His name is Hachi and he's the smallest, cutest little thing. We love that we can play with him all day and then he goes home with the worker. Ha! We are in Panama.
Smallest cutest little thing indeed :) Thanks for sharing this lovely picture with us! Greetings to Panama :)
Moc hezká pani ovečka!!😍🐑
Prý tam budou ještě měsíc, tak tam můžem zajít i spolu ;)
Congrats to the winners. I like the second photo much more.
Thanks, I liked that one too. Also, it was the very first entry from Laos in this challenge :)
Preserve all life on Earth.🤲🌎🌍🌏🛡
That would need some dramatic changes in the human behavior, unfortunately... But we can try. Everyone can try :)
The sheep looks just like my sheep! Her name is Nelly!
Really? Feel free to share a picture of Nelly here as your entry for the new round :)
Nelly and her friend, Laura.
Aww look at this adorable couple :) Thank you for sharing this lovely picture with us. Can you just add where (location) and when (it´s important that the photo is not older than 7 days) you took it please? :)
It is older than 7 days! Oops! I'll try to get another one added soon. And I'm in Panama.
!LUV
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Dík :)
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Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 14/44) Liquid rewards.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Very nice submissions again.
I'm safely back in the Netherlands again, so I'll upload a Dutch nature shot again this week.
Awesome, looking forward to checking out your entry :) Oh and glad that you survived that South European heat and made it home safely! :)
I've survived 😊
When we came back there was a 30+ heatwave in The Netherlands which was feeling quite cool since we were used to 36+ 🤣
But things have cooled down to 25 degrees this week and the insects are showing up again.
This bumblebee I shot yesterday in my backyard was huge. You can't really tell the size as you have bo reference in the photo, but trust me... it was big 😀
Amazing close up, thank you! Good to have you back safely, both here in the challenge and back to your homeland too :)