Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 214

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 214th 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´m sorry about the delay guys, it has been another crazy weekend for me and it was not until now, the Sunday afternoon, that I finally got a little free spot in my real life shcedule to roll out the new round of this challenge. My apologies again. The picture above was taken in a country that is actually my very favorite country in the world, mostly because of its extremely rich, diverse and beautiful wildlife. Yes, I´m talking about you Costa Rica, the magical land of Pura Vida :) It was one of those unforgettable evenings on the Playa Negra Beach just outside of the little picturesque coastal town of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast of the country. Oh boy, how much I miss those moments...

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

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@stayoutoftherz with this entry from Austria:

Male flower catcins and early leaves from a walnut tree (Juglans Regia), near our home. It has become rare in our area, as its wood is highly appreciated! The photo was taken in Vienna, Austria.

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@suzana72 with this entry from Serbia:

Yesterday's walk on Vršačka Brdo in Serbia. This is the beginning of the Zdravlja Trail and there is a viewpoint from where you can see the entire city and its surroundings. And you can also see neighboring Romania, since the border is very close, some fourteen kilometers. Yesterday it was a beautiful view, so in the distance you can see the fields of Banat! Greetings.

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@alfrin with this entry from Venezuela:

Insects are the most abundant and at the same time most despised order of animals and the contribution of many of them is not seen. When you see them, the first reaction is to eliminate them, crushing them, stepping on them or using insecticides, and in this way many times we do not know that we are eliminating a great helper without knowing it. An example is the insect in the photo, which when seeing a close-up photograph like the one shown we see the beauty that we find in the smallest things, with beautiful blue eyes that are hidden from our fearful and often prejudiced view. The insect that we see in the photo, if you see it, you will appreciate it and take care of it knowing the great help it provides us, since this insect is called PARASITIC WASPA-COCKROACHES, species of EVANIIDAE, also called wasp flag, blue-eyed flag wasp. This wasp is a great ally in the fight against very annoying insects that abound in homes, but they control them by placing the wasp eggs in the cockroach eggs, so that their larvae develop and in this way prevent them from spreading, keeping their numbers low. So every time you see this insect, do not kill it, take care of it and what you can do is trap it and place it in the area where you usually see the most cockroaches. So this is an example of how we must take care of our prejudices since we may have unknowingly eliminated a great ally in our fight against cockroaches. I hope you like this information, this insect was taken inside my house in MARIPERES, Caracas, Venezuela on April 8, my daughter's birthday, I hope this information helps you appreciate the insects that help us since they This insect is not dangerous for humans, although it is toxic, but it only uses it for its prey or predators.

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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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