Tag Archives: Blogging awards

Appreciation

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi

We really do appreciate it immensely when people take the time and effort to let us know that they find de Wets Wild appealing, often also nominating us for one or more of the selection of blogging awards in circulation. Unfortunately these awards mostly don’t quite fit with our theme here at de Wets Wild, and in consideration of the many readers who’ve signed up to our blog that aren’t from the “blogging community”, we’ve decided to no longer dedicate special posts to awards whenever a fellow blogger is kind enough to honour us with a nomination.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate these generous souls promoting de Wets Wild to their own friends and followers, and everyone else that contribute to our blog through their warm, encouraging comments. And so we’ve decided to dedicate a special post to some of the very special friends of de Wets Wild, whom we hope will accept this as a token of the high regard and appreciation we have for them all.

Hop on over to these talented bloggers’ sites and enjoy seeing the world through their eyes (and camera lenses!)

And again, a big THANK YOU to everyone that’s given de Wets Wild a “pat on the back” along the way!

  • Joey and Marks Culver of MJCulverPhotography have become such dear friends of us de Wets that it feels as though we’ve known them forever. You’ll have to search long and hard to find two people more passionate about photography, and their passion and talent translates into some of the best monochrome photographic work you’ll ever come across. Feast your eyes on these examples: Starburst Tree and Frosty Florida Trees.
  • PieterK515 is a fellow South-African blogger, sharing his hilarious views on our country, the world and the people in it on Ah Dad…. Want to know what Pieter thinks of tattoos?
  • Ann-Christine is a prolific blogger with a faithful following of her blog Leya – have a look at the photographs in her post “Travel My Way” and you’ll understand why!
  • Christiane van Heerden does community work in South Africa and her one blog, Bridging Worlds showcases this passion of hers. Her other blog, Traveler’s Log is all about the beautiful destinations she visits with her precious family.
  • Elizabeth Turner is the talented blogger responsible for Dot knows! where she shares the most beautiful nature photographs – just look at these bee photos!
  • On I Am Safari Maurice Hovens shares some fantastic wildlife photographs, and I found his series from the Netherlands’ Oostvaardersplassen, including his post on Konik horses, especially interesting as it gives a glimpse into the Europe that existed long before humans appeared on the scene.
  • For a truly inspirational blog, you need not look further than Steve Rebus’ iChristian. Start with his “About” page and work you’re way from there!
  • Ilargia64 blogs from Spain and is another fantastic photographer – this shot of hers of an owl in flight speaks volumes!
  • Maralee Park is another genuinely talented nature photographer and she showcases her work on Through my lens, this shot of a beautiful river being an excellent example.
  • My Wall is the place where talented Imelda shares her poetry, short stories and beautiful photographs with the world
  • You’ll find a wide variety of photographs, from planes and memorials to birds and animals, on the Photographic Journey of Bulldog, but they all have one thing in common; like these photographs of our winter-blooming impala lilies they are all beautiful!
  • The Seeker is just the place to go if you are looking for all things spiritual and philosophical. Go have a look around, you”re sure to be inspired.
  • Traveling Marla is originally from Pennsylvania and she finds herself near Pretoria these days, though it seems she’s been almost everywhere in between. You’ll love her quirky writing and the beautiful photographs that comes with it. This short piece on Klipspringers will give you a good taste of what Traveling Marla has in store for you.
  • Willem Kruger is an award-winning South African photographer, and for good reason: Look at this photograph of his showing a yawning leopard!

More thanks from de Wets Wild

Elizabeth Turner (elleturner4), the talented blogger responsible for Dot knows!– a delightful mix of beautiful photos and intelligently humorous writing that you’d surely enjoy – have done us the great honour of nominating de Wets Wild for two awards recently!

Thank you, again, Elle (everyone seems to be calling you Elle in the blogosphere – do you prefer that to Liz?) for thinking of us – it is always nice to receive a pat on the back and more so from someone as talented and experienced as you!

versatileblogger

First off, Elle nominated us for “The Versatile Blogger Award” and, in accepting the award there’s a couple of courtesies we need to adhere to:

Acknowledging and linking back to the blogger that nominated us – Done!

Next give seven random pieces of information about ourselves, so here goes:

1)     Marilize is a terrific cook!

2)     Dries enjoys a bit of “plane-spotting” every now and then

3)     Joubert has a little rabbit called “Snoesie” as a pet

4)     Snoesie rules the back yard

5)     Marilize is a passionate reader of fiction

6)     Dries enjoys reading non-fiction only

7)     Joubert, at three years of age is quite multilingual – Afrikaans is our home language, but he is quite accomplished in English and understands a fair bit of isiZulu.

And then the Grand Finale; nominating fifteen other bloggers that we consider worthy of this award, based on the following guidelines: “The quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page. Or, of course, the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them. Honour those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then.”

mjculverphotography

Nature on the Edge

Notes from Africa

about.the.bush

Derek Evans Photography

Zeebra Designs & Destinations

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

23 Thorns

Through My Lens

Francine in Retirement

Cee’s Photography

human Triumphant

Our second award nomination from Elle is for the “Liebster Award” – in accepting, we have to mention and link back to our nominator (please refer to the opening paragraph), answer eleven quick questions about ourselves, and nominate eight favourite fellow bloggers for the award:

What is your favourite song?

Amazed by Lonestar

What was the last thing you ate?

The contents of the lunchbox Marilize packed for me…

Do you prefer to read from an eReader or a paper copy?

Paper!

List your five favourite movies?

Notting Hill

Robin Hood, Men in Tights

The Lion King

Miss Congeniality

The Hangover

What writing project are you working on now?

We’re working on a series on the nature destinations around Pretoria, another on the camps of the Kruger Park, and one on the big tuskers of Kruger – all to be featured soon on de Wets Wild.

Are you allergic to anything?

Not that we know of!

Do you have any real life stories that start with, “This one time at camp…?”

Of course there are many, given that we escape to nature every chance we get – the hyena incident at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is a recent example.

How do you handle telemarketers?

Politely decline their offer the first time but then if they don’t want to relent I put my phone down next to the radio or television so that they too can experience the joy of listening to something you are not the least interested in…

When was the last time you wrote someone a letter by hand and mailed it?

1997

Besides writing, do you have any other artsy talents?

Dries and Joubert enjoy drawing, and Marilize is, as mentioned before, an excellent cook

What is your favourite joke?

Not a joke, but a funny saying: If at first you don’t succeed, then maybe sky-diving isn’t for you!

In turn we’d like to nominate the following eight blogs for the Liebster Award:

mjculverphotography

Nature on the Edge

Notes from Africa

about.the.bush

Derek Evans Photography

Zeebra Designs & Destinations

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

We hope that our nominees accept these small tokens of the high regard we have for the work they publish!

Great to start 2013 with a blogging award nomination!

inspiring-blogger-award

Our friends Marks and Joey, fabulous photographers and bloggers at mjculverphotography, have done us the great honour of nominating de Wets Wild for the “Very Inpiring Blogger Award” – thank you very much again Joey and Marks!

The rules for the award:

* link back to the person who nominated you

* post the award image on your page

* tell seven random facts about yourself

* nominate fifteen other blogs.

Seven facts about us:

1) Joubert is named after my (Dries) late father – is there any better way to honour someone who has been a profound positive force in your life? Miss you Dad.

2) Marilize is a qualified travel professional, and she operates a successful business making reservations for the public in a variety of wild places across South Africa.

3) I (Dries) work for one of South Africa’s premier conservation agencies – a childhood dream come true!

4) I (Dries) am colour-blind.

5) We’ve made our home in Pretoria, but we are open to any opportunities to move permanently to any of South Africa’s wild places.

6) Our home language is Afrikaans.

7) We are proudly South African!

In turn we’d like to nominate the following blogs for inspiring us!

We’re still very new to blogging and already we’ve come across so many inspirational blogs that it is very, very difficult to narrow it down to just 15 – please don’t feel unappreciated if we’ve not mentioned you!

A Word In Your Ear

Canadian Hiking Photography

Cee’s Photography

Francine In Retirement

humanTriumphant

ilargia64 Reflections

Lagottocattleya

life portOfolio

Lu’s Pix

Mirth and Motivation

mjculverphotography

My Wall

retireediary

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

A blogging award for de Wets Wild to end 2012!

 

one-star-2012-blog-award1

Thank you to everyone for helping us out – we gladly and gratefully accept your vote for “Blog of the Year 2012”!

Thanks again to Jenn of “The Serenity Space” for honouring us in this fashion, we really do appreciate it!

In turn we would like to nominate mjculverphotography as Blog of the Year 2012: Through a shared interest in and passion for the beauty and peace to be found in the great outdoors, our path has crossed with that of Marks and Joey – a real highlight of our year. We are regularly blown away by the beautiful images they create through their unique style of photography. We hope that you’ll accept this nomination as a small token of our appreciation, dear Joey and Marks!

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The rules for the award:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award.
2 Write a blog post and name/tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.
3 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them
4 You can now also join The Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience
5 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

———

What a great way to end the year: Jenn, the fabulous author of “The Serenity Space” has kindly nominated de Wets Wild for an award!

We consider the nomination a very humbling honour – thank you again Jenn.

What’s more, Jenn’s given us a pick of three awards to choose from: the “Very Inspiring Blog Award“, “The Illuminating Blogger” or “Blog of the Year 2012“. This is where we’d appreciate our readers and followers to decide for us which of these, if any, you feel we most deserve – please?

(we’ll close the poll by the 10th of January 2013)

Thank you very much for your contribution – we appreciate every one of you who have taken an interest in our blog, your thoughtful comments and most especially the online friendships we’ve forged since launching de Wets Wild. We look forward to much more of the same in 2013 and wish you all only the very best for the new year ahead!

Golden Gate Sunset