Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 199

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 199th 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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Today, I will take you to a very special place. So special that you cannot actually visit it. Why? Because it doesn´t exist anymore. Known as the Azure Window, this magnificent limestone arch was the most famous natural landmark of the Maltese island of Gozo. Until March 8, 2017 when it collapsed into the sea during a severe storm. We lived on the island from late 2013 to the summer of 2014 so we were lucky enough to have a chance to visit this stunning creation by Mother Nature, several times actually. The landmark was so popular that it was impossible to take a picture of it without some people in the frame. And unfortunately, it was also (dumb and ignorant) people who actually contributed to the demise of this iconic Maltese landmark as they kept walking on the bridge despite the signs reading that access to the upper part of the arch was forbidden. You can actually see some idiots being up there even in this very photo. We can only speculate how much longer the Azure Window could have been there if people respected the rules...

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In the last round of this challenge, we had 5 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@suzana72 with this entry from Serbia:

Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 198. Morning in my village Uljma, the sunrise that I see mostly in winter. The sun then rises at seven o'clock, just before I leave for work. The sky is beautiful just before the sun appears and I took this photo on Monday. I was seduced by the color of the sky. Loction: Banat, Serbia.

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@agreste with this entry from Argentina:

Hi! This is my entry. A few days ago I found this chrysalis attached to a brick. I don't know what insect it belongs to, but since it is under a blue passionflower plant, I suppose it belongs to the gulf fritillary butterfly, which fulfils its life cycle in passionflowers. I was very struck by the richness of the shapes and textures in something so small, which lends itself to imagine different figures. Photo taken in a rural area, in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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@fantagira with this entry from Poland:

Oh no, I’m sorry to hear about what happened in your country this week. I hope you and your family will have a peaceful holidays nonetheless. I’m currently visiting my hometown in Poland, Knurów and the picture for this edition of the contest is fresh from today, 23rd of December 2023. We have snow.

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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!

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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! :)