Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 74

Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!

Welcome to the 74th 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:

It was a beautiful sunny (yet not too hot) day last Saturday here in Krakow, Poland so we took advantage of the nice weather to make a trip to the mysterious Camaldolese monastery on the Srebrna Gora Hill (I will publish a post about the monastery tomorrow) and the hike also lead trough some amazing lush greenery. I took this picture right next to the Pilsudski Hill in the Wolsky Forest, definitely one of the largest and wildest forests in the city.

In the last round, we had 4 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

@hairyfairy with this entry:

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Ahoj, posílám fotečku ze včerejší procházky Prahou - jezírko ve Stromovce a nad ním stojící místodržitelský letohrádek. One of lakes in Stromovka park and Governor's Summer residence in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo taken yesterday.

@raizayanez with this entry:

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Yesterday (07/07/21) while walking in "Playa Mansa", in my city Lechería, Anzoátegui state, Venezuela, we had a lot of fun with a group of Cotúas (popular name for the Phalacrocorax olivaceus), who were sunbathing. Each of the most relaxed birds was enjoying their moment, with a different body position, watching the horizon, preening themselves and others as if to say "I'm fine, let me be quiet". One of them, raised its wings like a teacher wanting to get the attention of his students, and failed to do so. They continued unaltered, without haste or hurry. Concentrated on their "Do nothing" or "Do what I want". I liked this experience and I share it with you. Every day let's learn something by observing nature, less hurry and enjoy more the present and the contact with nature. Greetings, happy life.

@bossel with this entry:

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Well, thank you! Wanted to get out on Sunday again, but slept (well, turned & turned in the heat) the whole day. So, I'll give it a try with a photo taken on Wednesday. Was at the coast near the south port of Patras, Greece. Found a number of crabs again & they let me get closer than ever, into the macro range (25 cm) of my 18-55mm zoom lens. Well, me: my camera. That's why most pictures didn't turn out so well. Couldn't see what I was doing. Anyway, didn't want to post another crab image, so I decided for a sea snail (also macro). Don't know which species it is, but it was quite old. Must have been one of the biggest sea snails I have seen here, bigger than a walnut.

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 ;)

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Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about Nature, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Traveling, Photography and discovering secrets and beauties of the World, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on hiving! :)

Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 74

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