Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 117th 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:
Nothing really fancy this time but a simple shot of the lush greenery that can be found close to the apartment in Prague, Czech Republic where we are staying now. The vigorous canopy is actually a part of what the locals call "the Central Park" and if you notice the tall residential houses in the background, you might see some kind of resemblance to the iconic NYC park, though still quite remote of course :) In fact, I´m yet to fully explore the park so you can probably expect some more photos from this place in some of the future rounds of this photography challenge. I took the picture just about two hours ago earlier today.
In the last round, we had 12 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@xaviduran with this entry from Spain:
Hello @phortun and all nature lovers. First of all my congratulations to last week's winners @esthersanchez @friendlymoose and @tommyl33. Many thanks phortun for organizing the contest and let us show up our work.
This is the first time I take part in the contest and what less to do than to make a minimal introduction. I am from the Balearic Islands, Spain, the westernmost archipelago in the Mediterranean and you can say that apart from the unfortunate hotel establishments, we are surrounded by nature.
Following the interpretation of the philosophy of the contest, I present an image of a small island near the city of Ibiza. For professional reasons every week I have to go up to the roof of a hotel on the coast and every time I go up, I take pictures of several of these little islands. The photo I present here was taken last week almost at dawn on a cloudy day in which the extreme light of the sunrise between thick clouds, made the scene look a bit dramatic.
Unless stated otherwise, all the pictures and the words are mine. Do not use this image without my written permission. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Camera: Fujifilm X-T2
Lens: Fujinon 18-55 f:2.8-55
Processed with Capture One.
@betterthanhome with this entry from South Africa:
Great winner shots, congrats to all of them. Just yesterday, I walked through the Newlands Forest here in Cape Town, South Africa. What a beautiful forest with huge trees.
@trangbaby with this entry from Vietnam:
Incredible entries and well deserved :) Congrats everyone. I send you guys some of the tropical beach vibes in this entry. It was taken at Da Nang's My Khe Beach in Vietnam while I was out for a walk on Sunday at noon. This winter has been very weird and we've been through a very long winter. It's nice to have the summer already here and be able to relax by the beach.
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 ;)
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
