Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Welcome to the 221st 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´m sorry guys to inform that June will probably be the last month for my challenges as I´m very likely to pause my activities here on Hive for some time from July onwards but let´s enjoy those few rounds that we have left. Traveling, nature and minimalism are definitely among my favorite things and this capture from Costa Rica combines them all :) A simple shot of a majestic heron patrolling the warm shallow waters of the Caribbean Sea in the Cahuita National Park. I cannot even describe how much I miss those carefree nomadic times. It feels like it has already been ages ago but yet, it was just a few years back. We visited Costa Rica in 2017 and the unparalleled richness of local fauna and flora made me fall in love with this country right away. Pura Vida, my beloved Costa Rica.
In the last round of this challenge, we had 5 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@triplug with this entry from Romania:
Oh my, we're already on round 220, how quickly time flies. I fondly remember round 212, when out of 8 entrants, my photo was chosen as one of the three winners, and now as then I am just as happy, one of the many reasons to thank you @phortun. The picture I entered then was taken on 24.03.2024, it was early spring, but then I had made a promise to myself that I would come back to the same place and the same angle and take another picture but from another season (summer). Today 26.05.2024 I took my drone and went up to the same place here in Romania and tried to get the same angle and so another promise ticked, I am very happy to participate in this contest.
@godfish with this entry from Spain:
Here's one from my latest post. The photo was taken on Friday around 20:00, so it's still less than a week old ;) It's a view from the small plateau where Refugio Giner de los Ríos stands in Sierra de Guadarrama, Spain. Well, I wanted to capture the panorama, but the donkey was against :) However, I guess you haven't had many entries with donkeys, have you? This one is female and likes to pose. Her kind preferred to graze and kept disappearing in the vegetation.
@shamis with this entry from India:
Hello @phortun. This is the continuity of my last weeks visit ie., on 19th May, Sunday at Vagamon, a small village in Idukki district of South Kerala, India. Let me brief you about this picture. This is a pine forest. A man made forest during the reign of the British. A deep forest which is always cool and calm. The place is quiet popular for film shootings, especially South Indian. One of the main location, you can call in Idukki district. During winter, its fully covered with fog in the evening times and during summer the place is more beautiful, by the sun rays peeping through the tall closely knit Pine trees. As we went during rainy season it was a bit slippery due to the leaves and protruding roots. In some places the walking trails help us to move forward and in other places it is steep. It has become a popular tourist destination. You can find too many small souvenir shops, at the forest entry. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
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.
