Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 167

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 167th 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. 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 in this post as well. I only check the entries submitted here as comments.

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. I also give some smaller upvotes on the other entries too so that all participants get rewarded for their engagement.

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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I have been extremely busy lately and I guess I should really come with some kind of update post for you guys because my Hive routine has been and will be greatly affected by that as well but I somehow still manage to spend some time outdoors too. It´s actually much needed in such hectic times. For example, I visited the renowned Hvezda Nature Reserve a few days ago but the photos from there didn´t turn out nice, probably because it was already quite late that day and the light conditions were not good. So instead, I´m using this picture that I took from a hill overlooking the Asuan Water Reservoir here in Prague, Czech Republic earlier today. Most of the trees here are already covered with beautiful fresh green leaves but some species are still just sprouting, like the one in the picture above ;)

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In the last round, we had 9 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@onlavu with this entry from the Czech Republic:

Thanks for picking my shot last time. My today's contribution was taken at the end of my trek through my beloved Jeseníky Mountains (Czechia) yesterday. Those rocks can be found at the well known Lost Stones (1250 m.a.s.l).

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@xaviduran with this entry from Spain:

A couple of times a week, while cycling, I pass by a secondary road, an old asphalt road paved several years ago, where I find what is believed to be the largest pine tree on the island of Ibiza, the Pino de Besuró. It is a tall and imposing tree, but what impresses me the most is the latticework of its branches. It is truly spectacular. Last Sunday, making an effort, I decided to take my Fujifilm X-E2 with me, taking the risk that if I fell off the bike, the camera could be destroyed. It wasn't and here is a picture of the main trunk and its imposing branches. Thanks @phortun for this open space to publish images of our environment.

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@sodom-lv with this entry from Vietnam:

I have a long holiday this week and returned to my hometown to enjoy the beach sunrise. I took this picture this morning. Location - Nha Trang City, Vietnam. Device - Pixel 3

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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, 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! :)