Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Welcome to the 199th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)
Important note: I have been hosting this challenge in the same format for almost 4 years but I recently decided to introduce some major changes to it so please read all the updates below. The essence of this challenge stays the same though so the intro part will be the same as it was before.
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 ;)
HERE COME THE UPDATES
Originally, the prizes for the winners were just my full upvotes given to their entries but since, unfortunately, I lately had to power down significantly, my upvotes are not that big and motivating anymore so I decided to reward the winners of each round with additional 1.5 Hive each. So now, the winners get my full upvotes on their entries plus 1.5 Hive each. All of the other valid entries will be rewarded with some smaller (usually 50%) upvotes too so that all participants get rewarded for their engagement in this challenge.
In the past, I usually hosted this challenge on Thursday but because of the reasons described below, I cannot guarantee that anymore so now, I may roll out the new round on Thursday, Friday or even Saturday so if you guys don´t want to miss out on the fun here, please check out my blog regularly.
Also, in the past, I always tried to lead by example and thus open each new round with my own fresh natural photo taken during the previous 7 days. However, as you might now from my recent posts, me and my wife are now taking care of our newborn baby and it takes just so much time and energy that I simply don´t have the time to go out and take fresh natural photos anymore (btw late autumn and winter here in Central Europe are not favorable seasons for natural photography anyway) so instead, I will be using my old photos from cool natural places around the world that I have been to. Hopefully, in a few months, I will be able to go out to nature regularly again and take a nice fresh picture for each round just like I did it over the years but before that happens, I will show you some beautiful natural places that I got to see during our travels. It will also be a nice way for me to remember and relive those moments from the times when it was just me and my wife, traveling around the world - happy, young and free :)
THE RULES
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 7 days.
Add a few lines about the photo (at least 50 words) including the date and location.
You can start submitting your entries to this round in the comment section below from now until the next round. If you want to create a separate post as your entry, you can do that but please always remember to submit your entry in the form of a comment here under this post as well. I only check the entries submitted here as comments.
Prior to publishing the next round, I will pick 3 winners, give my full upvotes on their entries and send them 1.5 Hive each as the prize. The winning entries will be featured in the next round of the challenge. I also give smaller upvotes on the other valid entries as I mentioned before.
So that´s it. Let me now open the new round of my photography challenge called Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)
Today, I will take you to a very special place. So special that you cannot actually visit it. Why? Because it doesn´t exist anymore. Known as the Azure Window, this magnificent limestone arch was the most famous natural landmark of the Maltese island of Gozo. Until March 8, 2017 when it collapsed into the sea during a severe storm. We lived on the island from late 2013 to the summer of 2014 so we were lucky enough to have a chance to visit this stunning creation by Mother Nature, several times actually. The landmark was so popular that it was impossible to take a picture of it without some people in the frame. And unfortunately, it was also (dumb and ignorant) people who actually contributed to the demise of this iconic Maltese landmark as they kept walking on the bridge despite the signs reading that access to the upper part of the arch was forbidden. You can actually see some idiots being up there even in this very photo. We can only speculate how much longer the Azure Window could have been there if people respected the rules...
In the last round of this challenge, we had 5 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@suzana72 with this entry from Serbia:
Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 198. Morning in my village Uljma, the sunrise that I see mostly in winter. The sun then rises at seven o'clock, just before I leave for work. The sky is beautiful just before the sun appears and I took this photo on Monday. I was seduced by the color of the sky. Loction: Banat, Serbia.
@agreste with this entry from Argentina:
Hi! This is my entry. A few days ago I found this chrysalis attached to a brick. I don't know what insect it belongs to, but since it is under a blue passionflower plant, I suppose it belongs to the gulf fritillary butterfly, which fulfils its life cycle in passionflowers. I was very struck by the richness of the shapes and textures in something so small, which lends itself to imagine different figures. Photo taken in a rural area, in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
@fantagira with this entry from Poland:
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear about what happened in your country this week. I hope you and your family will have a peaceful holidays nonetheless. I’m currently visiting my hometown in Poland, Knurów and the picture for this edition of the contest is fresh from today, 23rd of December 2023. We have snow.
Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries and sent 1.5 Hive each, you can check that out in your wallets :)
I am looking forward to what you all will come up with in this round :) Have fun everyone and don´t forget to... Appreciate 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.
Finally near nature, so here's one fresh from early morning. This is a tiny river at the base of Serra da Estrela, near my grandparents village. It has a beautiful little waterfall, and I lost count how many times I've photographed it... but is always great to visit this place over and over! 😉
Nice one! Thanks for your lovely greetings from Portugal :)
My pleasure, it's great to finally join in again! 😉
Happy new year @phortun and all contestants of this cool contest.
I hope 2024 will be a great year with a lot of beautiful nature shots!
My year has started great with a skiing trip in Brixem im Thale, Austia.
Today was a bit misty with some sun which resulted in some very nice sceneries like the following one.
I'll create a complete post of them when I get home next week.
Hey there! Good to see you here again :) That´s an amazing entry, thank you! And Happy New Year to you too of course! :)
Hey @phortun,
Check out my latest photo entry I managed to catch on my hike around the highest peak of Jeseniky mountains (Czechia), Praděd (1491m). View from a rock formation below Bear mountain (1216m) shows lovely dale with meadows and clouds. It was pretty yesterday, so perhaps that's the reason of interesting shape of the clouds 🤔
Wow! That´s some truly remarkable cloud formation! Thank for your cool entry pal! :)
This photo was taken on December 31,2023 from the province of Pangasinan, Philippines.
This is our last family pic for the year 2023. We visited a private resort at the beach beachfront of San Fabian, Pangasinan. After a year of being busy we always see to it that we gather and everybody should be present during the year end. Every place is beautiful as long as you're with your family.Happy New Year to everyone.
Well, this one looks more like people photography than nature photography but it´s a cool shot and I´m glad that you had a lot of fun together guys :) Thanks for your entry and Happy New Year!
Hi @phortun mate
I took this photo in the Christmas eve in Istanbul. It was golden hour and the sky strangely seemed like this. It doesn't often happen so or I can say it was the first time I had ever seen. I think there must have been better scenes nearby a seaside.
Wow! That´s some really cool spectacle up in the sky! Pity you were not on the coast indeed as there is not much nature in this picture but still a nice one for sure ;) Thanks!
The horizon looks like a seaside somehow :)
The sky is on fire!
Beautiful!
Congratulations to winners, @suzana72, @agreste, and @fantagira! I like the snow photo the best, as I like to see snow in photos... not that much in real life... 😂
After a longer time, I finally got some free time to go fishing... When I arrived the water was so calm that I had to take a photo as I knew that it would change in a matter of minutes... and it did... The location is Lake Guadalest, Spain, December 28, 2023.
Good luck everyone!!!
Wow, very cool reflection! Literally like a mirror :) Was your fishing session successful?
Well, I got a nice photo, so it was successful... 😂
Regarding fish, it wasn't... The fishing rods stayed in the same position for 5 hours... without moving... 😂
Five hours? That´s some admirable stoic patience right there! :D Well, at least no fish was harmed during the process :)
hahahaha... yeah... lucky them! 😂
2 days back clicked this small growing apple photo. I have been staying in mountains since 5 days and enjoying the nature very much. My room is between apple orchid, nowadays locals doing cutting work for next season. The location is narkanda, himachal pradesh, India.
Thanks for your entry. Can you add the location please?
Thanks for selecting my photo! For this week I'm going with another close up photo:
In this case it is aphids on a tasi plant, one of my favorite native plants in my area (Buenos Aires, Argentina). At this time of the year, the stems of this plant are filled with the very long-legged yellow aphids that you see in the photo. They don't seem to affect the plant too much, at least they don't kill it, because they are still there year after year. In this case it is a wild plant. A few years ago I grew some in pots and they were attacked by the same yellow aphids, which apparently did not infect the other plants I had nearby (which, in some cases, had aphids, but not yellow aphids). Greetings!
Wow, another very interesting close up, thank you! :) Greetings from Czechia to Argentina!
This picture was taken two days ago when I went for a walk inside a beautiful nursery.
Thanks for your contribution but please add the missing info as required in the rules, thank you ;)
Most welcome. Next time i will add.
Hello phortun!
It's nice to let you know that your article will take 11th place.
Your post is among 15 Best articles voted 7 days ago by the @hive-lu | King Lucoin Curator by deepresearch
You receive 🎖 0.9 unique LUBEST tokens as a reward. You can support Lu world and your curator, then he and you will receive 10x more of the winning token. There is a buyout offer waiting for him on the stock exchange. All you need to do is reblog Daily Report 161 with your winnings.
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STOPor to resume write a wordSTARTI always like real beauty, so I try to stay in the beauty of nature so that my mind is good.
Cool. If you take some nice pictures when in nature, feel free to share them with us here in this challenge :)
Možná se pletu, ale mám pocit, že si ten skalní útvar "zahrál" ve starším filmu Souboj titánů.
Nepleteš, je to tak :) A není to zdaleka jediný film, ve kterém si tohle místo "zahrálo" :)
Pomíjivost světa. Ještě že se můžeme na některá místa znovu podívat aspoň prostřednictvím "záznamu"
Thank you so much for choosing my post @phortun 🥰🌸
You are lucky to have visited this natural wonder before it disappeared.....
It looks very unusual in the photo...🤗
Have a nice evening ✨
I thank you Suzana for your continuous participation, that was a very nice entry :)
Nature is really a beautiful gift from God. I love those pictures and they all did a great job by taking the pictures
Kudos to them!
Thanks for your feedback for our winners :)
Congrats to the winners!
Indeed! :)
Thanks for the retweet!
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
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Awesome, thank you guys! :)
Oh wow 🤩 So happy you liked my snowy picture! Thank you so much for the prize and congratulations to all the winners and 5 participants is not enough, so I’m sharing this for others to notice and participate too 😁
!ALIVE 💙
My pleasure! Snow is rare in many parts of the world so snowy entries are quite popular here :) Thanks for sharing, the participation is actually very random and unpredictable :) Sometimes, I get a dozen or even more entries and other times I get barely enough to compile the winning collection :D :/
Ah yes, ebbs and flows of everything. I see it a lot with other contests too ☺️
@phortun! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @ fantagira. (1/10)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want, plus you can win Hive Power (2x 50 HP) and Alive Power (2x 500 AP) delegations (4 weeks), and Ecency Points (4x 50 EP), in our chat every day.
Daily we need to appreciate the beauty of nature
It is a gift from God to us and we must value it strongly
Right. Feel free to join us with your own entry :)
Looking these pictures is awsome and such a stunning photos and no doubt a great places. Nature is always inspirational.
Thanks for your kind feedback :)
Mira cómo te dije anteriormente debe ser bien difícil para ti escoger la mejor todas son bellas fotos.
Sí es cierto. Gracias por revisar mi publicación nuevamente, muy apreciado :)
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 51/61) Liquid rewards.
Thank God for this given gift of nature to we the world of humanity
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STOPCheck out our last posts:
What is more beautiful than nature, these photos are amazing and it is a thing of joy to be around nature.
Thanks for your feedback, feel free to join us with your own entry :)
I wish everyone best of luck for the contest, hope the best one wins.