Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Welcome to the 206th 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 :)
I opened the last couple of rounds with pictures from the Americas but this time, we will go back to Europe. To a picturesque little island called Gozo, to be precise. The island is a part of the Maltese Archipelago and we had the privilege to call Gozo our home some 10 years ago. The island is much smaller than the main Maltese Island (which is actually called Malta, just like the country that these islands comprise) but when it comes to the natural beauty, Gozo can easily compete with its bigger sister. A significant part of the island´s coastline is made up of these magnificent limestone cliffs. I cannot remember where exactly I took the picture above but you can really find these stunning sceneries all over the island. Oh and by the way, the island is so small that you can walk around it in one day. I didn´t try it but it should really be possible, given that the island is only 14 km long and 7 km wide :)
In the last round of this challenge, we had 8 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@plantfuljourney with this entry from Switzerland:
I remember when I saw crocuses for the first time. It was during my studies in Belgium. I lived in a town called Leuven with a huge botanical garden. When I entered the garden I found myself in paradise. There were 'carpets' and 'carpets' of beautiful purple flowers that I have never seen before. I used to go there every day as they made me so happy. Today, they are not so unusual and although I don't find such 'carpets' in Switzerland I do find small clusters which are so CUTE! This photo is from my walk yesterday. The sun was shining, it was warm, so I enjoyed my time outside as well as those little beauties.
@mojiko-blog with this entry from Pakistan:
This is first time I'm participating in this photo contest. This is my entry for @phortun challenge from Punjab, Pakistan I took this shot right today morning it's 11 February 8:30 A.M. I capture this photo on my morning walk it is a dill herb plant covered with dew drops and today is a surprisingly foggy morning. You can see in the background it is rising morning mist behind. The photo was taken by my phone camera.
@franzpaulie with this entry from the Philippines:
This wild ground orchid greeted me upon reaching the peak of the hill. My sister found a new hobby which is collecting rare plants. She was so eager to hike with me to see wild orchids when I told her about wild orchids naturally growing in Malaunay, Valencia mountain, Philippines which she hadn't seen yet in her life. She did not pick any so don't worry :) The photo was taken last Saturday.
Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries and send 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.
Between these 2 pics are just 3 months, this is from a few days ago (in Vienna).
And this the very same spot from last early Nov.
As you can see the heavy weather, especially the unusual masses of snow has taken its toll on this group of old/almost rotten trees. All but one fell.
Wow, that´s a very interesting comparison. It seems sad but if those trees were really rotten, then it´s ok. It´s a part of the natural cycle. Unfortunately, my country (and I´m sure yours too) have witnessed some extreme weather phenomena over the recent years that even perfectly healthy trees fell victims to them... We even had a few tornadoes here. Crazy. Anyway, thanks for your entry! I take the first picture as your entry as that´s the fresh one ;)
Thanks! I revisited the spot today more closely and found out that there might be another reasons:
I think this was a beaver!
Yeah, it does look like a beaver´s work. I saw some trees cut by beavers near my hometown and it looked exactly like this.
Even though I had a pretty crazy weekend, I couldn't help but run out to my place in western Romania and take some sunset photos, I think I drove you crazy with my sunset photos.
Today (Sunday) I simply got in the car and drove a few kilometers to catch the sunset, I hope you like it.
These days here in the west of Romania the temperatures were like spring (however, something unusual for the month of February).
No worries my friend, it´s impossible to get tired of sunsets :) Very nice one, thank you.
You're welcome.
Hey mate, I would like to pick your shot as one of the winners but for some reason, I can only see a half of it now. Maybe if you upload it again in a smaller size, it could work... Thanks :)
Oh I'm very happy that my picture is among the winners, but it is possible that the size of the picture is too big, I will edit it in the sense that I will give it a smaller size, I will upload it immediately.
I've reloaded the image, hope it works this time, thanks again.
Yes, I can see the whole photo now, thank you very much :)
😉
Hello everyone, its me suteru from the Philippines. It's now summer time here so we get to see a lot of sun this past weeks. Here is a photo taken last Sunday (Feb. 18) on the hill just beside our house(Tuba, Benguet, Philippines). Were so lucky that we can see this view every weekend when we go home. The sun's color makes the horizon golden. Sadly my camera don't give much justice to the view compared to what the eye can see.( I'm using my phone for taking picture,Vivo v17)
I can understand how the phone camera limits your ability to capture what you really saw but it´s still a vera nice picture, thank you ;)
It's been a rainy week, not favourable for any hikes or even bike rides. So I went up to the campsite situated on a hill in Apolong, Valencia, Philippines the other day. The best part of this place is the botanical garden. This happy colour caught my attention.
Amazing colors indeed. Thanks for another great entry from your beautiful country :)
Congratulations to all the winners👏👏.
This beautiful butterfly greeted us as we entered our temporary building. We transferred here last February 19, 2024, and while we were unloading our things, I saw this flying in all the rooms of the building (I felt a bit creepy as the old folks said; if there's a butterfly in a room there's a spirit 😱). The butterfly landed on the floor and stayed for a while and I got the chance to take a pic of it. We transferred here beside the infirmary building located at Poblacion, Tabogon, Cebu, Philippines because our old building will be demolished and construct a new one.
That´s a very interesting saying about the spirits but I think you didn´t have to be afraid as this creature looks like a moth, not a butterfly ;) Very nice picture though, thank you!
We'll not really afraid though cause we don't have a choice but to stay in this place for a while.
I see :) But spirits don´t necessary have to be evil. There are good spirits too :)
Yes of course. It just felt creepy.
Greetings nature loving friends I was coming back from my physiotherapy in Santa Monica, Miranda State, Venezuela on Wednesday when I saw this beautiful Hibiscus rosa-sinensis that I call my attention because it is not very common to see this rose grow in such an urban place and full of pollution, but here it is in a declaration of resistance of our mother earth. Regards!
Awesome shot, thanks :) We have a soft spot for the hibiscus in our family as this flower helped us pick the name for our daughter :)
..One from Ireland..
Just walked d dogs last Friday at back field and dis interesting cloud was floating around so just took a shot..
Location is somewhere around Bunmahon, co. Waterford, Ireland
Wow, tak to je ale pořádný mrak! Jak kdyby ho tam přilepila AI :D Jenom prosím doplň ještě aspoň jednu větu, ať splníš požadovaný word count, dík ;)
AI nieee.. len som to hodil cez auto upravy v jednom programe cisto iba farby..
..kurnik,som si myslel, ze si toho nevsimnes s tym popisom.. preto ja asi nikdy bloger nebudem, sa mi nechce pisat po anglicky..
Sám jsem si ta pravidla vymyslel, tak musím dohlížet na to, aby byla dodržována :D Jak chceš, ale byla by škoda těch pár slov nepřidat, protože ta fotka je fakt zajímavá a její šance na výhru asi nebudou malé :)
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Congratulations to the three winners, very interesting entries.
Thanks for checking them out! :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
It gives me great pleasure to stop by here.
Thank you.
The winners really deserve to win because all of the pictures are cute
I really love them
Glad to know that you approve of my picks :) Cheers!
The plants that grow are extraordinary.
Plants that grow? You know some that don´t grow? :D
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 47/57) Liquid rewards.
Ahhh it's been a really long time since I shared an entry here. I really need to get back to shooting some more stuff. Great entries here as always, man. Good job.
Thanks, we will be looking forward to checking out your entry then :) Cheers!
These are really amazing pictures
We are blessed with the gift of nature
Thanks for your feedback. Feel free to show us some natural beauty from your place :)
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @dsc-r2cornell, which is the curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community.
This amazing view of nature fascinates me. Also I like your lively letter about this nature. Always work with the goal of innovating nature
Thanks for your comment but I don´t understand it much. What letter and what innovation?