Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 69

Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!

Welcome to the 69th 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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Last Saturday, we visited the Botanic Garden of the Jagiellonian University here in Krakow, Poland. Established as early as in 1783, the garden is quite large with a total area of almost 10 hectares and it´s a nice green natural getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are many interesting plant and tree species to be found and admired here, including the water lilies that I captured to share with you. The botanic garden is located on the Kopernika Street and it´s open every day.

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In the last round, we had 10 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@benavides54 with this entry:

This photo I took exactly 3 days ago, when I was visiting my favorite place to meditate, breathe fresh air and connect with the beauty of creation, which is a beach called "Playa Mansa" that lives up to its name because it is a beach with very calm waves, but very beautiful, where you can see beautiful sunsets and is located in the coastal town of "Lecherias", in the state of Anzoátegui, Venezuela.

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@babeltrips with this entry:

Due to the hottest temperature of the year (daytime feels like 40 degrees celsius) in my city, everyone has to escape from the sun and find some cool places to dive in. As usual, my friend and I went to a stream outside of Danang. On the way to Fairy Stream, we passed this stunning Que Hiep Lake. It's not a big lake that we have in Vietnam, but definitely worth stop for swimming and even camping here. There are flat and shady corners on the side which are perfect for a getaway.

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@orestistrips with this entry:

You asked fresh, you got it. This one is taken at the swimming bay of Pountazeza, Greece. There was a lot of activity around this area even from the prehistoric ages and I guess the picture answers why. It was taken today hence the "fresh" I initially mentioned.

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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, 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! :)