Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 124th 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:
Last weekend, we went for a little hike around the Prague neighborhoods of Motol, Kosire and Brevnov as we wanted to spend some time in the popular Ladronka Park. On our way up there, we stumbled on this beautiful pond. I later found out that it´s actually called Kotlarka. As you can see in the picture, the pond is surrounded by this dense lush vegetation, making it a nice natural getaway but in fact, there is a busy road with trams adjacent to the pond from the other side. Still, however, people go to the pond to enjoy some relaxing moments, walk their dogs and even fish. I mean go fishing there, not walking their fish :D Photo taken by me on Sunday.
In the last round, we had 12 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@eto-ka with this entry from Russia:
Interesting contest! I'll try to participate. I took this photo on 06/22/2022 during a lunch break walk in my city near Moscow, Russia. On this flower, several insects acquaint with nectar at once. Large Eurasian bee beetle (Trichius fasciatus). From a distance, I thought it was a bumblebee. And it turned out to be a beetle unfamiliar to me, which I had to identify using the Internet. Amazing yellow and black pattern. Interestingly, there is also a small beetle at the top left of the frame, and also with a beautiful pattern.
@littlebee4 with this entry from Spain:
We visited yesterday the Biopark in Fuengirola, Spain. I normally wouldn’t visit a zoo for many reasons, but this zoo is different. It has space for the animals. They can run around almost freely, lots of area and nature. Rivers and waterfalls. So many trees that it almost feels like wandering through a jungle. They are well cared for. Luckily. High up in one of the trees I spotted this Golden bearded Gibbon. It was enjoying itself. The day was rather warm, as it is summer in south Spain, but being under the trees in the shade made it almost comfortable. A nice breeze was going through the area. It is nice to see the animals here are well cared for. So it didn’t make it too hard to have a look around. I was showing hubby the zoo, as he had not visited it yet in his 15 years being around here. It was a lovely day out.
@friendlymoose with this entry from the Netherlands:
Lots of great submissions again! I'm joining again with a post from my backyard here in The Netherlands. This one was taken with my phone just 5 minutes ago. I've just posted a blog about my Ox eye plant which attracts lovely insects when I saw another butterfly on it again. A peacock butterfly.
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.
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