Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 155th 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:
Finally, after weeks of cloudy skies and grayness all around, we have been enjoying some sunshine again. Yesterday, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a little hike around the Hamr´s Rocks that are located just above the Prokop Valley here in Prague, Czech Republic. It was so good to see the blue sky again and even some greenery as the sun rays lit up the needles of the coniferous trees :) It was sunny all day, that´s right, but still freezing, which is why I actually also captured a lot of very cool ice formations on the partly frozen Prokop Creek that I will show you in one of my future posts (probably on Saturday) but for today, I´m picking this shot of the Hamr´s Rocks mentioned above ;)
In the last round, we had 9 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@jlinaresp with this entry from Venezuela:
Hello @phortun friend and everyone here! This is my entry for this round! Good luck to all and big hugs! "HEADING TO THE MOUNTAIN" A hiker is on a country road heading for the mountains south of town. Location:"Montalbán, Carabobo, Venezuela" - (February 03, 2023) Nikon D7000 | 55 mm | 1/800s | f/5.6 | ISO 250.
@diding with this entry from the Philippines:
Here's my first entry in Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun:round 154. This photo was taken last Sunday. My sister and I decided to explore above the famous waterfalls in Red Rock, Valencia here in Negros Oriental, Philippines. This is what we found. There wasn't a trail to get there until we made one; and it was not easy to reach to this place. It was worth all the courage to get to the destination. Anyway, we stayed there for more than 2 hours and then I took this one particular photo that fits in the contest theme. I'm happy to participate in this contest. Have a nice day everyone!
@franzpaulie with this entry from the Philippines:
Meet the giant golden orbweaver. Its size was almost as big as my palm. I was in the middle of the hike in Pulangbato Mountain, Philippines this weekend and hard not to notice it when it set its ambushed just right above the pathway. Sorry if this photo unlocked phobia for some. They are actually quite giant but harmless and minding their own business.
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.
