Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 145

Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!

Welcome to the 145th 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.

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You can start submitting your entries to this round in the comment section below from now until the next round.

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. As long as the response is not too overwhelming, I will also try to give some smaller upvotes on all of the other entries to reward all participants.

I might change the concept and/or the rules of the photo challenge later on, depending on how things go. 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:

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Just like the last week, I really struggled again to capture something nice in nature for you, even though I spent quite a lot of time outside. The weather has been so bad here and it´s very difficult to find some other colors in nature than just various shades of gray or brown :/ With that being said, I´m sorry to come up with another not so cool picture to open the new round of my challenge but this is the "best" shot I have taken in nature during the past few days. Mediocre, I know. Hopefully, we will get some sunshine soon again. I took the image yesterday while hanging around a forest in the neighborhood called Motol here in Prague, Czech Republic.

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In the last round, we had 6 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@malos10 with this entry from Venezuela:

This photo is from yesterday from my fog hunt here in Venezuela! I saw the mountains was cloudy and I drive right into it chasing this foggy photos, I enjoyed the pretty landscape and all the animals I saw in the journey.

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@onlavu with this entry from the Czech Republic:

Hey @phortun! Last Sunday, I went to check out the very first signs of the upcoming winter (snow and frost) in the Jeseniky Mountains here in the Czech Republic. Before the noon (as the shot depicts), it was quite nice and sun was even shining. But after the noon, the weather got uglier, sun disappeared and I nearly froze to death. In the end, I enjoyed the hike as it was different, sort of survival adventure.

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@franzpaulie with this entry from the Philippines:

Greetings from the beautiful country of Philippines! After a week of being glued to a computer , I know I had to unplug and head outdoor before I lost my mind, lol. So I hiked up the mountain for hours, taking the moment, it's like a pain inside me if I don't see nature, as I am so one with it. Hope you enjoy this photo that I took yesterday.

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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!

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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, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Sport, Traveling, Photography 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! :)