Ritva Sillanmaki has captured the 1st Place Award with this beautifully captured photo of juniper berries – if you’ve ever smeller juniper, you’ll know that this photo instantly conjures up their scent!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

Barbara Beacham is this week’s Audience Choice Winner with this photo of freshly cut grass that we can just about smell!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

It’s never easy for us to pick the honorable mention winners, but as always we’ve done our best!

Scent often goes with flowers, but this spring the most vibrant scent in our forest comes from the fallen trees. A lovely scent, but one that brings sadness to mind – these beautiful trees are taken down and cannot be brought back to life again.

Ann-Christine makes it easy to smell the rich scent of cut wood in this great photo!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

Can you smell the salt air in this photo by Milka Pejovic? We sure can!

Have a look at their winning entry here!

On the way to South Georgia, this massive iceberg dwarfed our small boat! South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory found in the southern Atlantic.

A major center for Norway’s whaling industry in the 19th century, South Georgia is a beautiful yet rugged landscape of mountains and glaciers and a dangerous coastline swept by frequent storms. A brief summer brings abundant Antarctic wildlife to the island, which in turn has led to an increase in tourism with cruise ships and private yachts visiting the area more frequently.

• To enter the challenge, create a new blog entry titled “Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – The Beach” and Copy and Paste the html code in the box below into your blog entry (you’ll need to click the code tab when pasting it into your blog) to let your followers know that you’re participating in the Photo Challenge so that they can join in the fun too.

• Take one or more photos of something outdoors that fits the challenge theme! Watermarks and signatures are fine, but shouldn’t cover the entire image. Large images are the best kind and while there are no mandatory size requirements, thumbnail sized photos just can’t show off your talent (or the beauty of nature) the way a nice big image like the one you see above can.

• The Audience Choice Winner will be decided based upon which entry below receives the most comments on this page – tell your friends and family to come and reply with a comment below your entry here on LetsBeWild.com! Everyone can vote for as many entries as they like.

• Comment on this page with the URL to your blog entry! After 7 days, we will announce the 1st Place Winner, Audience Choice Winner, and 2 Honorable Mention Winners, all of whom will have their winning shots with a link to their blog featured here on LetsBeWild.com

• Be sure to visit the blogs of other people entering the Weekly Challenge & leave them some comment love too!

• Both professionals and amateur photographers are welcome to participate, and both stand an equally good chance of winning!

I took this photo in Snow Canyon State Park just outside of St. George, Utah. I was searching for the desert tortoise that is common in the area and I noticed how the Sun was casting these interesting shadows on the sand. These are very popular sand dunes for people, especially children, to play on.

Into the Wild

An instant classic for everyone bitten by the travel bug and filled with the urge to wander, Into the Wild tells the true tale of Christopher McCandless — a graduate of Emory University who abandons his savings and possessions and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

 

180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless

An inspirational documentary film, 180º South follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. This is a beautifully filmed documentary that will make you seriously consider quitting your job on the spot, packing up your car, and taking the trip of a lifetime.

7 Years in Tibet

7 Years in Tibet recounts the true story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer who befriended the young Dalai Lama, becoming one of his close friends and tutors, remaining in Tibet until the Chinese invasion in 1950. Filled with breathtaking views of the Himalayas, 7 Years in Tibet is a beautiful and historically accurate film.

 

A Map for Saturday

In A Map for Saturday, Brook Silva-Braga explores the world of long-term travel, staying in hostels around the globe where he meets numerous travelers who recount their unique stories. Forced to pack only five pounds of clothing to save space for his 30 pounds of video equipment, Silva-Braga captures the allure of travel and illustrates how it changes an individual. You’ll find yourself yearning to venture to new horizons after watching this film!

The Motorcycle Diaries

The Motorcycle Diaries is a biopic about the motorcycle journey across South America taken by 23 year old Ernesto Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado in 1952. Shaped by his experiences while traveling, Ernesto later became an infamous part of history as the Marxist guerrilla and revolutionary Che Guevara.

 

Paddle to Seattle: Journey Through the Inside Passage

Adventurers Josh Thomas and J.J. Kelley build their own kayaks and set out on a kayaking adventure, paddling for 97 days through the wilderness from Alaska to Seattle through the 1,300 mile Inside Passage. They encounter torrential rain, dangerous wildlife, and colorful locals along the way, in this outstanding documentary film.

Encounters at the End of the World

In this spectacular documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica to film its natural beauty and meet the people who live and work there. This film offers a unique perspective on life at the South Pole, profiling the community at McMurdo Station on Ross Island, situated amongst some of the most inaccessible and amazing scenery on the planet.

 

Castles in the Sky

A beautiful surf documentary, Castles in the Sky was filmed in five countries over three years. The film explores these locations as the surfers travel through them, finding new surf breaks and incredible scenery.
 
 
 

Que Tan Lejos (How Much Further)

An Ecuadorian film, Que Tan Lejos follows a student and a Spanish traveler as they unexpectedly end up traveling together after a strike prevents them from traveling by bus.
 
 
 
 

The Way

A father flies overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while making a pilgrimage along the legendary “El camino de Santiago,” and ends up deciding to make the pilgrimage himself, meeting many travelers along the way.

 
 

Beauty Beneath the Dirt

A powerful documentary about the thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Beauty Beneath the Dirt is “filled with personal stories of romance, betrayal, love, and loyalty, director Katherine Imp paints a raw and uncensored picture of how one journey can challenge, strengthen, and destroy the soul.” This is not a how-to guide for completing the Appalachian Trail, but rather an exploration of how the difficult adventure changes the lives of those who devote several months of their lives to hiking it.

Up the Yangtze

In this moving documentary, young men and women in a rapidly evolving China take up employment on a cruise ship sailing the rising waters of the mighty Yangtze River.
 
 
 
 

The Wildest Dream

The Wildest Dream features breathtaking visuals which tell the stories of George Mallory, the first man to make a summit attempt on Mount Everest and Conrad Anker, the climber who finds his frozen remains 75 years later.

 
 

In July

A charming German comedy, In July focuses on the journey of Daniel, a teacher who sets off on a road trip in search of his dream girl. He meets Juli, a beautiful street vendor, and the pair travel from Hamburg to Istanbul, falling for each other as they travel.
 
 
 

Baraka

A visually spectacular collection of fascinating scenes of human life and religion, Baraka was filmed in 24 countries. From secluded mountain tops to crowded factories, Baraka finds the beauty in the human experience that connects us all.
 
 
 

Touching the Void

An amazing account of friendship, tragedy, and the sheer willpower of humans, Touching the Void chronicles the journey of two mountaineers who set off to climb Peru’s formidable Siula Grande.
 
 
 
 

Walkabout

Abandoned in the rugged and harsh Australian outback, a young brother and sister learn to live on their own in the natural world, encountering a young aborigine on his walkabout, the traditional rite of passage where adolescent boys venture into the wilderness alone.
 
 
 

The Sacred Science

Eight people journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest to live in seclusion from the outside world for one month in search of natural answers to common illnesses.
 
 
 
 

The Darjeeling Limited

A year after their father’s death, three American brothers who haven’t talked to each other since the funeral set off on an adventure into the heart of India while riding the Darjeeling Limited.
 
 
 
 

In the darkness of Canada’s remote, subarctic taiga, the moon rises behind the trees. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world’s largest land biome, accounting for 29% of the Earth’s forest cover, with the largest areas found in Canada and Russia. The lowest annual temperatures after the tundra and permanent ice caps can be found in the taiga, and winters are long and harsh. Perhaps surprisingly, the brief summer temperatures are relatively warm and humid — July in Fort Smith can see temperatures as high as 22.9º C (73.2º F).  

 

Heather Tyson has captured the 1st Place Award with this outstanding shot of a moth beating its wings as it comes in for a landing on a flower — incredible!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

Barbara Beacham has earned her Audience Choice Award with this awesome shot of white water rafters moving with the current!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

It’s never easy for us to pick the honorable mention winners, but as always we’ve done our best!

Hummingbirds are always a treat to see in the wild! Joy managed to snap this great shot of one hovering in mid-air, its wings flapping so quickly that they’ve simply become a blur!

Have a look at her winning entry here!

We love how this shot by Kittu captures a sense of movement so well!

Have a look at their winning entry here!

While still jet-lagged from my trip to Indonesia, it wasn’t difficult to wake up early for the sunrise in Lisse. Although it is already the beginning of May, the tulips in this field are still green and closed due to the lingering low temperatures this year. It will take several more days for the flowers to develop. I can’t wait to come here again…