Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 196 (PLEASE SEE THE UPDATES!)
Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Welcome to the 196th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)
Important note: I have been hosting this challenge in the same format for almost 4 years but I recently decided to introduce some major changes to it so please read all the updates below. The essence of this challenge stays the same though so the intro part will be the same as it was before.
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 ;)
HERE COME THE UPDATES
Originally, the prizes for the winners were just my full upvotes given to their entries but since, unfortunately, I lately had to power down significantly, my upvotes are not that big and motivating anymore so I decided to reward the winners of each round with additional 1.5 Hive each. So now, the winners get my full upvotes on their entries plus 1.5 Hive each. All of the other valid entries will be rewarded with some smaller (usually 50%) upvotes too so that all participants get rewarded for their engagement in this challenge.
In the past, I usually hosted this challenge on Thursday but because of the reasons described below, I cannot guarantee that anymore so now, I may roll out the new round on Thursday, Friday or even Saturday so if you guys don´t want to miss out on the fun here, please check out my blog regularly.
Also, in the past, I always tried to lead by example and thus open each new round with my own fresh natural photo taken during the previous 7 days. However, as you might now from my recent posts, me and my wife are now taking care of our newborn baby and it takes just so much time and energy that I simply don´t have the time to go out and take fresh natural photos anymore (btw late autumn and winter here in Central Europe are not favorable seasons for natural photography anyway) so instead, I will be using my old photos from cool natural places around the world that I have been to. Hopefully, in a few months, I will be able to go out to nature regularly again and take a nice fresh picture for each round just like I did it over the years but before that happens, I will show you some beautiful natural places that I got to see during our travels. It will also be a nice way for me to remember and relive those moments from the times when it was just me and my wife, traveling around the world - happy, young and free :)
THE RULES
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 7 days.
Add a few lines about the photo (at least 50 words) including the date and location.
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 under this post as well. I only check the entries submitted here as comments.
Prior to publishing the next round, I will pick 3 winners, give my full upvotes on their entries and send them 1.5 Hive each as the prize. The winning entries will be featured in the next round of the challenge. I also give smaller upvotes on the other valid entries as I mentioned before.
So that´s it. Let me now open the new round of my photography challenge called Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)
It´s still freezing here in my Czech homeland, it´s dark, cold and slippery outside so to bring some nice warm tropical memories, I decided to browse through my Colombian photo file. We visited this amazing Latin American country back in the spring of 2019 and out of all the places that we got to see there, the Cocora Valley made the biggest impression on me. Hidden high up in the monumental Colombian Andes, the valley is famous for the incredibly tall and thin wax palms and for spectacular landscapes that are usually at least partly covered in the omnipresent mysterious fog. Oddly enough, you cannot see either of these in this particular picture that I took there but it´s still one of my favorites and I´m happy to share it with you :)
In the last round of this challenge, we had 5 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
@stayoutoftherz with this entry from Austria:
Great, that you keep this challenge despite other priorities 😀! This pic is from today nearby (west of Vienna, Austria), we had yesterday quite a lot of snowing, unusually early. And today the sun came out, so we could enjoy this nice white magic landscape. Starting already to melt away, so it is a very transient pleasure only.
@suzana72 with this entry from Serbia:
Good evening. Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 195. Yesterday's walk in the forest in Deliblato sandstone. Near the town of Šušara in Banat, Serbia. A day with 17 degrees, but in fact it wasn't that warm... Although the walk was pleasant, because it's cooler in the forest, especially when the sun goes down... I'm glad you have a new baby, enjoy this period. Greetings
@onlavu with this entry from the Czech Republic:
Last weekend, I decided to check out the fresh snow cover in my beloved Jeseníky Mountains in the Czechia Republic. These are snow-covered grazing lands, this time without any cattle, just me struggling through the powder snow in my snowshoes. It took me nearly two hours to walk just 4 km in that deep snow.
Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries and sent 1.5 Hive each, you can check that out in your wallets :)
I am looking forward to what you all will come up with in this round :)
Have fun everyone and don´t forget to... Appreciate 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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I have clicked this photo about 2 days ago at December 6, 2023 in soon valley( Pakistan).
Soon valley is the most beautiful place and full of such a great natural views.
This is the lake called Neel Wahan. And its water color is green just because it is surrounded by mountains and we have to take a long narrow route that goes deeper down like steep slope.
It was very dangerous way but I go there just to see this beautiful lake.
Mostly when peoples goes to such places they don't care about their lives during enjoyment and lost their lives. There are many such cases.
Because this place is not safe for tourists.
I hope You like my contribution.
Thanks for your contribution, it has been a while since we had an entry from Pakistan here :) Beautiful place!
Thanks so much for selecting my pic!
My pleasure mate, that was a really nice shot! See you in the new round :)
nature will not be upset, beautiful as always!
Right. I hope to see an entry from you in this round too :)
Nature is indeed calling my name. This is beautiful
If nature is calling your name, then we can look forward to an entry from you :) See you here later!
Sure
Neprovokuj s těmi letními Andami :))
Ukázalo se, že porota má zjevně slabost pro tuzemsko, takže bych se nedivil, kdyby zas nějaký tvůj pražský parčík dostal stejný počet hlasů jako moje Andy :D
To víš, on ten Andy už je v našich očích cizí. Myslím Warhola, ne Babiše, ten je naopak náš až moc :)
A naposledy uspěla česká louže, ale ta fotka jako taková snad byla slušná ;)
Já vím, ta louže dostala stejný počet hlasů, jako můj leguán z karibského ostrova Isla Mujeres, jeden z mých alltime bestsellerů na ShutterStocku :D Inu, u Bucíka opravdu jeden dopředu neví, jak to dopadne :D
Na druhou stranu je to soutěž o místech, ne o zvířatech. V nějaké amazing nature contest je to jasný favorit, v around the world možná porota hledá něco trošku jiného ;)
To je fakt :) Já jsem si v Mexiku vytvořil pro leguány slabost (pár jsme si jich tam i ochočili, nechali se od nás krmit z ruky, nejradši měli ibišek :D), tak jsem asi v jejich případě lehce zaujatý :) A jo, to zasněžené klánovické jezírko bylo dobré ;)
To mi nemusíš plácat med kolem huby, zvládnu to sám ;)
To já vím, že sebevědomí ti nechybí :D Ale teď jsem se na ni díval znovu a uznávám, že ta fotka byla dobrá :) Obecně mě odrazy přírody na vodě baví a sám tohle téma taky často a rád fotím...
Tak dík :)
I wish I have pictures that are as beautiful as this.
They are nice photos
I love them!
Thanks for checking them out again, I´m sure our winners appreciate your feedback :)
A to ses minule bál, že Andy budou "studené" :-). Přitom to vypadá tak, že než by člověk přešel tu louku, dvakrát by ždímal triko :-D.
Tak bylo to kousek od rovníku, to ano, ale zároveň nějakých 3,000 výškových, takže tam bylo příjemně, na kraťasy a tričko ;) Jen bylo třeba dávat pozor na pumy :)
Pumy drogové mafie nebo ty čtyřnohé? :-)
:)
Que bellas fotografías 😍 felicitaciones a todos los seleccionados y a las nuevas entradas, mucho éxito.
Gracias! Saludos y exitos :)
It's good that people will benefit from all the changes you mentioned and I don't have any specific pictures at the moment so I'll definitely share next week.
Well, I hope that in the next round, you will benefit from the new rules as well :) Cheers!
The atmosphere is quite beautiful and I like the results of this photography.
Which one?
It's all good to me and the coolest thing is the picture of the trees that look snowy on them.
This photo has been clicked on 3 December 2023. What happened was that Aman (my friend) and I had gone to visit Sahastradhara (India), my plan was to swim in the river located there but in search of a good pond and a good location, we reached a dead end while walking along the river bank. And from here we chose trekking to come back and after climbing the mountain in front, we reached the road after about an hour.
Wow, I wouldn´t have guessed that this picture is from India :) But it´s a nice one, thank you!
Thank you for giving us a chance to show our country Nature and landscape
What a great entries last week!
It's completely understandable that you have less time for other things when you have a newborn.
Just enjoy the time. Soon you'll be walking in nature with your little one 😉
I'll keep on following and try to join more often.
Yesterday I made a nice walk in the mist where I took some cool shots like the one below.
Greetings from the Netherlands!
Hey there, good to see you here again! Very nice picture, I like the mi(y)sterious feels of it :) Greetings to the Netherlands!
We really need to appreciate the beauty of nature every time
Right. Feel free to share your moment of appreciation with us here in this challenge :)
I took this photo yesterday 8 December under the castle in Vélez Málaga, southern Spain.
It shows an olive tree. And not just any tree, this tree, although it doesn't look and looks quite normal, is about 300 years old.
Imagine 300 years of the city below living, thriving or declining, rulers changing, houses being torn down and new ones built.
And this tree has been there all the time, on the hillside below the castle.
Fascinating to realize what these ancient trees have witnessed during all those centuries that they have been around :) Cool entry, thanks!
Yes, and they can be even older...I mean much more older.
When I go next time to Sierra Nevada, I will bring fotos of olives which are considered to be up to 1000 years old.
Yeah. There is an olive tree in Greece that is estimated to be up to 4,000 years old. Just mindblowing :)
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Congratulations on the 196th round of your nature photo challenge! Exciting updates, and wishing you and your family all the best with the newborn.
Thank you :)
Well done @phortun for the three winners they really were some amazing entries.
Thanks for checking them and leaving this nice feedback for the winners here! :)
All were very good entries and deserved their place😉
Well, in this round, you are one of the winners again, congrats! :)
Ah that's great news, first of all I'm glad I was able to participate and secondly that I got to be the winner, once again thank you and see you at the next round.
Hello everyone
I want to share with you in round 196, the round launched by @phortun, a picture I took yesterday, but unfortunately I didn't get to upload it right after I took it although that's what I wanted when I took it.
Yesterday morning I woke up to a wintry atmosphere outside, windy, cold and very foggy.
So I took my drone and raised it above the village where I live here in western Romania, although I lost the signal a few times (I was a bit afraid of losing it) I managed to capture a few photos that I hope you will like.
On the left side of the image you can see the village over which a blanket of fog spreads, and on the right side you can see the hills with vine plantations on them.
I wish you all a wonderful Sunday.
Wow! That´s a very interesting view. Fascinating what the modern technology can do for us :) Great entry, thanks!
I'm glad I was able to load my entry in this round, I hope to see as many good entries as possible in this round.
That’s my favourite from this location
That´s a very nice shot indeed, thanks for finding your way to my challenge :) Can you please add some text though? Should be at least 50 words long and include where and when you took the picture. But you can just copy that text from your post ;) Thanks!
Walking around the garden i took some pictures to the flowers in there, this is called cayenne I really like it's vivid colors.
That´s a nice flower close up, thanks, but please make sure to read and follow the rules of this contest next time ;)
Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 196
Good evening...✨
At the weekend I was in the Homolj mountains, where I also saw some snow. It hadn't rained in Banat yet... here there was snow only on one side of the mountain... And on one part of the top... Where it was frozen on the branches, and under the sun it melted...
I'm happy to see him even this little... 🥰
Greetings 🌸
Thank you Suzana, that´s a nice entry but unfortunately, the winners were already picked when you submitted it. I hope to see you in the new round that I´m just about to post :)