Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 206

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 206th 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 :)

I opened the last couple of rounds with pictures from the Americas but this time, we will go back to Europe. To a picturesque little island called Gozo, to be precise. The island is a part of the Maltese Archipelago and we had the privilege to call Gozo our home some 10 years ago. The island is much smaller than the main Maltese Island (which is actually called Malta, just like the country that these islands comprise) but when it comes to the natural beauty, Gozo can easily compete with its bigger sister. A significant part of the island´s coastline is made up of these magnificent limestone cliffs. I cannot remember where exactly I took the picture above but you can really find these stunning sceneries all over the island. Oh and by the way, the island is so small that you can walk around it in one day. I didn´t try it but it should really be possible, given that the island is only 14 km long and 7 km wide :)

In the last round of this challenge, we had 8 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

@plantfuljourney with this entry from Switzerland:

I remember when I saw crocuses for the first time. It was during my studies in Belgium. I lived in a town called Leuven with a huge botanical garden. When I entered the garden I found myself in paradise. There were 'carpets' and 'carpets' of beautiful purple flowers that I have never seen before. I used to go there every day as they made me so happy. Today, they are not so unusual and although I don't find such 'carpets' in Switzerland I do find small clusters which are so CUTE! This photo is from my walk yesterday. The sun was shining, it was warm, so I enjoyed my time outside as well as those little beauties.

@mojiko-blog with this entry from Pakistan:

This is first time I'm participating in this photo contest. This is my entry for @phortun challenge from Punjab, Pakistan I took this shot right today morning it's 11 February 8:30 A.M. I capture this photo on my morning walk it is a dill herb plant covered with dew drops and today is a surprisingly foggy morning. You can see in the background it is rising morning mist behind. The photo was taken by my phone camera.

@franzpaulie with this entry from the Philippines:

This wild ground orchid greeted me upon reaching the peak of the hill. My sister found a new hobby which is collecting rare plants. She was so eager to hike with me to see wild orchids when I told her about wild orchids naturally growing in Malaunay, Valencia mountain, Philippines which she hadn't seen yet in her life. She did not pick any so don't worry :) The photo was taken last Saturday.

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!

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.