Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 104th 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:
Despite the annoying winter weather, I go out every day but I haven´t been lucky enough to capture some nice fresh natural photos lately so I have to use one from last Thursday (still just 7 days old though so it´s in accordance with the rules). It was actually the very first time for me to cross the Zwierzyniec Bridge here in Krakow, Poland that day and I noticed there are some interesting views of the Wisla River from there so I snapped this picture. Zwierzyniec is a suburban part of the city, which is why you cannot see many buildings on the banks of the river but mostly trees and vegetation. It must be a really nice spot to appreciate the beauty of nature in spring or summer when everything is green over there...
In the last round, we had 9 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@thebalanceguy with this entry:
I took this on Sunday at a beach called Banna Strand, that’s only a 10-15 minute drive from where I live on the southwest coast of Ireland. Quite often there’s good surf here, but this was not a day for surfing... This was a day for appreciating the powerful cleansing effect of the sea air. Plus, the view here changes constantly, so it’s a great place to sit and just ‘be’.
@loulou1987 with this entry:
Hi @phortun, I am adding my photo from Saturday from our skitouring trip in Krkonoše, Czech Republic. It was freezing, windy, metres of snow but that´s what I like as you know :D The photo was taken at Lysá hora and it was just about 30 minutes when we saw a bit of sky. However, it was all worth it.
@betterthanhome with this entry:
Today I´ve found this beautiful spot while I was exploring the western coast of the Algarve in Portugal. This beach is called Praia da Azenha do Mar and it is so different to my last entry from the southern coast of the Algarve.
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 ;)