WATER WEDNESDAY WINNERS! (Nature Photo Contest)

Thank you everyone for your great submissions! The Water Wednesday contest was judged by Adrian Szatewicz (@photovisions). Originally from Poland, Adrian loved the outdoors since he was a child growing up in the neighborhood of a lake, river, forest, and fields. His passion for nature followed him into adulthood. Adrian currently lives in Norway, and enjoys photographing the beauty of nature, especially the wild landscapes of the North.

“As a judge in the contest I had a really hard job to do – to pick the best shots from so many submissions – almost mission impossible. It was challenging but it was also a pleasure and fun to check every entry, to write my comment about and to pick my favorites. Thank You all for sharing Your shots and please support the contests idea and @shadalene in the future, because it is great initiative to search and reward the best content here on Steemit. It was a pleasure for me and I hope we will meet during some more contests in future! Have fun and good luck Steemians!” ~ Adrian

WEEK 1: WATER WEDNESDAY WINNERS!

FIRST PLACE: @intrepidphotos

A three shot panorama of the Natural Bridge. It is a naturally formed rock arch over Cave Creek, a tributary of the Nerang River. It was formed from a waterfall which undercut a cave beneath the waterfall and dug a pothole on top, until the two joined and the creek flowed through the cave, leaving an arch across the front. The bridge is located in Springbrook National Park in the Gold Coast hinterland of Queensland, Australia. The park is situated on the McPherson Range, near Springbrook, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Brisbane. The park is part of the Shield Volcano Group of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.”
Image taken by and remains the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com

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SECOND PLACE: @photofreediver

“The ocean is a whole world, another planet. It is populated by amazing creatures. For us, for people living in a different world, every new encounter with marine life is an incredible miracle and brings a lot of positive emotions. But each time we need to remember that we are only guests in the underwater world and we must be very careful to enter it.”

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THIRD PLACE: @scottshots

“I photographed this from a helicopter with the door removed. It was on the way to a commercial photo shoot where I was going to be photographing a silver mine in Nevada from the air. I figured I needed to "warm up" the camera on the way to the silver mine. Glad I did...”

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

@muttonchoppers

“This is a shot of some ice shards on a frozen river in Applegate, Oregon. I thought it was rather surreal looking up close.”

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@eaglest

“This beautiful green waterfall is part of the Allerheiligen Falls in the northern part of the Blackforest in south Germany. They are also called Büttensteiner Falls and consist of 7 parts with a total height of 66 meters.”

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@mcertic

“This image was created on the island of Silhouette, Seychelles. The island is locate 45 minutes boat driving from island Mahé, and Victoria is the capital city of the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
Nature did a magic thing. The rain was a few miles from the shore, in the middle of the ocean. We enjoyed the warmth of the sun, and the beautiful scene that was created - Rainbow.”

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@fivealive55

“My entry is a long exposure from Panther Beach in California. This beach is part of the Coastal Diaries State Park just north of Santa Cruz. The park is filled with amazing cliffs and beaches and is my favorite spot for coastal photography in Santa Cruz county. I am considering going here again today for sunset. I have the day off and I am thinking of going to Big Basin to shoot some old growth redwoods, then heading to the coast for sunset. If I head out of Big Basin to the south and try to cut to the coast I will end up on Bonny Dune road which intersects Highway 1 right at this park.”

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@yumyumseth

“I went for a walk right after a nice rain and came across this reflective puddle! I love using reflections to give a different perspective of nature.”

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@snaptravel

“I climbed this mountain in Thailand in a torrential rainstorm. As I reached the summit, the rain finally relented and gave me a chance to take some photos. It took just a few minutes for the tropical sun to begin reinstating its authority. As it did so, thick clouds of mist rose up out of the surrounding landscape. The jungle was steaming, and I was finding a new definition for the word humid.”

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@dmytrokorol

“I found this interesting rock formation on the Cordoama beach and had struggled to find the right position on the wet stones, wiping the lens, covering my camera from splashes and trying to capture the contrast between the motion of water and stillness of rock.”

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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!

If you enjoyed this gallery, please upvote and share! Thank you!

If you haven’t yet, check out these stunning photo galleries featuring previous winners:
Mountains Monday Winners Week #1
Trees Tuesday Winners Week #1

To learn more about this contest, check the Introduction post.

To participate, check the TIME-LAPSE THURSDAY and submit a photo while the contest is open!

NATURE PHOTO CONTEST DAILY THEMES:
Mountains Monday (previous judge: @shadalene)
Trees Tuesday (previous judge: @caseygrimley)
Water Wednesday (previous judge: @photovisions)
Time-lapse Thursday (current judge: @derekkind)
Flora and Fauna Friday (upcoming judge: @sjarvie5)
Simple Sunday (upcoming judge: @yumyumseth)

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WATER WEDNESDAY WEEK 1 MEMO	Account	Prizes and Payments
First Place	@intrepidphotos	20%
Second Place	@photofreediver	12%
Third Place	@scottshots	7%
Honorable Mention	@muttonchoppers	3%
Honorable Mention	@eaglest	3%
Honorable Mention	@mcertic	3%
Honorable Mention	@fivealive55	3%
Honorable Mention	@yumyumseth	3%
Honorable Mention	@snaptravel	3%
Honorable Mention	@dmytrokorol	3%
Judge	@photovisions	20%