Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 210

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 210th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)

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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.

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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 ;)

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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.

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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 :)

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I opened the last round with a picture from the Azores and we will stay on this amazing Portuguese archipelago in this round as well. But instead of the spectacular volcanic landscape that I showed you the last time, we will enjoy some scenic views of the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds the archipelago on all sides. I remember this hike very well. It was the first time that we decided to climb the little hill that appeared to be just a short walk / hike from the place where we stayed in the picturesque tiny village called Joao Bom on the Sao Miguel Island. Of course the hike was in fact much longer and more difficult than it appeared from the comfort of the terrace of our house :D But the views were amazing and it was totally worth the effort. The town that you can see below is Mosteiros and the black volcanic cliffs are the most famous natural landmark of the town.

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In the last round of this challenge, we had 7 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@triplug with this entry from Romania:

I really can't stay away from you, so I come to you with a picture I took in my own garden on 05.03.2024. Here in the west of Romania I can say that on some days spring came, this led to the rapid flowering of apricots, they are always the first to bloom in my garden. I'm glad that until now the temperatures during the night have not dropped below zero degrees, this would obviously lead to the freezing of the flowers and the decrease of apricot production. Maybe this year we will be lucky and we will be able to eat apricots from our garden, honestly for several years apricot production was almost zero because of the frost. I really enjoy sitting and watching how hard working these bees are, it's honestly so relaxing to sit and watch them.

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@godfish with this entry from Spain:

Do angry birds qualify? I hope so! These two were sitting on a lookout halfway to Castillo de Gibralfaro, a fortress above the city of Málaga, Spain. Cool gang, huh? I guess some people feed them for posing, because they (or maybe two others of their kin) were there even when we descended back into town about two hours later. The photo was taken on Saturday.

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@usagigallardo015 with this entry from the Philippines:

Hello again sir @phortun a pleasant morning to all the hivers. From my water world Bulacan, Philippines. For my today's entry let me amazed you by this magical sunrise. The big house you see is my aunt's and the small is ours. Last week my husband went home for his day off but he needed a boat so I need to bring my kids in the road and returned it back home. But if his not around, I can let the kids bring the boat and just wait for them to come home. The disadvantage of that set-up; all we wish is nothing bad will happen. Well we have a escape route lol. My aunts house, decades ago we are called neighbors but the changes made us look far from each other. At the back we will soak in water, the level at legs and the mud its sure deep. But anyways I love it's color who can resist its beauty? It's like it will give a positive day to start with. And the most beautiful start it all started with this sunrise.

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Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries and send 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!

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I post this series in the Amazing Nature community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)

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This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.

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Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about Nature, Traveling, Photography, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Sport, Fitness and discovering secrets and beauties of the World, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on hiving, guys! :)

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