Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Welcome to the 189th 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. 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 in this post as well. I only check the entries submitted here as comments.
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. I also give some smaller upvotes on the other entries too so that all participants get rewarded for their engagement.
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:
Here in Central Europe, the first colorful leaves on trees can usually be seen as early as at the beginning of September but this year, because of the extremely warm and sunny end of summer, the onset of autumn has been delayed by several weeks and it´s only now, at the beginning of October that the autumnal colors are starting to appear out there in nature. I went for a little autumnal photo shooting session yesterday. I headed out to some of my favorite natural places here in Prague and it was by the Asuan Water Reservoir where I got this nice shot. The ducks curiously checked me out and when they found out that I had no food for them, they slowly swam away. I also visited some of my favorite viewpoints on the nearby rocks. It was a nice and relaxing autumnal hike :)
In the last round, we had 11 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@stayoutoftherz with this entry from Austria:
This is from two days ago, in the Vienna Forest, 30min. south from Vienna. It is supposed that the composer Ludwig van Beethoven was walking here in his last decades and aiming for piece and harmony. A post with more pics will follow.
@videoaddiction with this entry from Turkiye:
Hi @phortun mate. I was at a Coast Park in the last weekend to do some recreation. The weather was super fine, thus many people flooded to the park, however it is so wide to take many people in. I also shared a post about it ;) Location: İstanbul, Türkiye
@diding with this entry from the Philippines:
Congrats again to all the winners! Here's my entry which is quite a bit sad but a reality of nature wherein my new pet Zebra Swallowtail caterpillar was captured by that fierce bug (if you know the bug's name, please drop a comment bellow, thanks). Look at how the bug held the big caterpillar with its tiny fore legs. I hope that bug won't find the three others in my lemon tree in the yard or else I'll take my caterpillar pets in my room, lol! 😅 Have a nice day everyone! Location: Siaton, Philippines in my yard yesterday.
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 ;)