HOTSHOTS ~ 3/17/25

[castleberry]

~ Photography Lovers Community
Never Gonna Catch Up Curation part 1 ~

Hello and welcome, fellow Photography Lovers! It has been an honor and privilege to manage and curate this amazing community. As many of you may have noticed, there hasn't been a HotShot curation report in quite a while.

Putting together these curation posts is quite a daunting task at times. I generally have the template set up to accommodate 70 photos including the user and the title link to take you all directly to the post where that featured photograph comes from. At times I cut it a bit shorter and at other times I add a few extra just to stay caught up to the flow of content we have posted into our community.

I am a one-man team and have been for quite some time now. Curating isn't just plugging in all the posts and the links and user names. Curating means getting rid of scammers and bot accounts trying to milk rewards. Curating includes manually reviewing each individual post and also checking for undisclosed AI and plagiarized content.

Clearly, this is not an easy chore and I am not even mentioning my other tasks on Hive I do from behind the scenes. The primary focus of these reports is to help everyone get more traffic to your blogs and content. It is also structured to make sure that posts are still open for voting so that we can all reward and support each other. This is only possible when I stay caught up though.

Lately, we have had family company for days multiple times in a row. My son is getting to the stage where he is becoming almost as wild as his father and needs constant supervision. Our not-so-new apartment is still in need of many actions to make it truly a home.

I have been on dad duty while my partner has been doing her schooling and internships. Needless to say, I haven't had much time to even open my computer, let alone do all the things necessary to manage and curate as well as the standard i hold myself to. I personally cannot do Hive oriented anything on a phone.

In general, i try to chronologically go through all the posts in the community to see which ones will be nominated for OCD votes and which ones will be featured in our HotShots reports. I have gotten so far behind i hit a wall and don't even know where to start to pick back up and was/am very close to burn-out. I have tried to at least take what little computer time i could manage to scrounge up and drop the nominations for the OCD votes as often as possible.

So, i have not been completely inactive but whenever i have had time to hop online there has been so much to remove and moderate it left me with even less time to do the more fun and social aspects of why i enjoy HIVE. I also do all of this for the Alien Art Hive community but i get some help there and i am very grateful to Julia for all that she has done.

This is not a 'poor pitiful me' post and i am not looking for sympathy or anything, i just wanted to give some context and let you all know what's up. I will be going back and selecting some posts that have already paid out and will be selecting in a more refined way features for this round of HotSHots. To be honest, these curation reports are the most difficult to make and pay the least amount of rewards. I may be doing HotShots in a more streamlined and shorter form moving forward. Everyone here is always supportive of me and understandably knows that family ALWAYS comes first. But, y'all are also my PhotoFamily!

I would love to hear any feedback, ideas, suggestions, or changes you all think i could apply to make our community more engaging and rewarding for us all down in the comments.

Today's HotShots

Photographer	Post Link
@carminasalazarte	Weekend Compilation: Yellow Flowers [ENG/ESP]

Photographer	Post Link
@hadrianwild	A Rat's Eye View of Fallen Leaves

Photographer	Post Link
@tattoodjay	Mono Monday here and there

Photographer	Post Link
@plantfuljourney	Historic town of Arbon

Photographer	Post Link
@victorbz	The portraits of survivors - series of photographs

Photographer	Post Link
@tonyz	Pussy Bar

Photographer	Post Link
@konquest	Chatterbox Falls / Princess Lousia Inlet

Photographer	Post Link
@haastrecht	Mono Museum Monday

Photographer	Post Link
@marijasworld	Oui, c´est moi!

Photographer	Post Link
@alokeen	Light

Photographer	Post Link
@rossfletcher	Some shots from the fires in California. I wasn't sure I would ever post these

Photographer	Post Link
@iquique	Temporada de ballena en Iquique / ,Whale season in Iquique

Photographer	Post Link
@scottshots	This Morning's Emerald Bay Sunrise

Photographer	Post Link
@naitreart	Moments in baseball games [Eng/Esp]

Photographer	Post Link
@androliuben	A Pregnant Woman with her Family

Photographer	Post Link
@goga22	The story of Maksmilijan, the beautiful Maks

Photographer	Post Link
@papilloncharity	Some sunflower hippie doggies

Photographer	Post Link
@x-rain	Two Weeks of Catspotting in Bangkok

Photographer	Post Link
@themyscira	Set down in the middle of nowhere... spring is coming in full force/ Abgesetzt im Nirgendwo… der Frühling kommt in vollen Zügen

Photographer	Post Link
@russia-btc	My wife's first photo shoot 🖤🤍 - Lala Lake

Photographer	Post Link
@silviamaria	Looking back at a bucolic life

Photographer	Post Link
@tattoodjay	reds

Photographer	Post Link
@jlinaresp

Photographer	Post Link
@greddyforce	Some Winter Scenes From Last Yearhttps://images.hive.blog/0x0/ / https://peakd.com/hive-194913/@greddyforce/some-winter-scenes-from-last-year

Photographer	Post Link
@harveyword	The Pyramid of the 38th Parallel - Sicily Italy

Photographer	Post Link
@sniki003	The best museum you will ever see is in the Vatican

Photographer	Post Link
@anitahorvatirl	Collapse in the town

Photographer	Post Link
@alokeen	A little more

Photographer	Post Link
@dayanart	Iron dog

Photographer	Post Link
@wilfredocav	A view of the sunset and the horizon

Photographer	Post Link
@gatubela	Belleza detrás de las rejas. Las aves del zoológico de Las Delicias (Aragua, Venezuela) / Beauty behind bars. The birds of Las Delicias Zoo (Aragua, Venezuela)

Photographer	Post Link
@honeydue	Frightful

Photographer	Post Link
@goga22	Heavenly show

Photographer	Post Link
@russia-btc	Photoshoot at the Sanctuary of Truth: the magic of light and shadow 🏯🌴

Photographer	Post Link
@annativa	A Cycling Adventure Through the Vineyards of Franciacorta

Photographer	Post Link
@littlebee4	☀️ “Walk around the Iznájar Reservoir towards the Dam with me” ~ IZNÁJAR, Cordoba province in Spain 🇪🇸

Photographer	Post Link
@joyyyy	THE EDO BEAUTY

Photographer	Post Link
@mynewlife	Quad in the wild. Mobile photography

Photographer	Post Link
@fatemehsohrabiii	The beauty of nature with the faces of sunflowers 🌻🌻🌻and bees

Photographer	Post Link
@rafasanz93	Mary and Manuel, a nice photo session/ Mary y Manuel, una bonita sesión de fotos (ENG/ESP)

Photographer	Post Link
@victorbz	And then i found these festive bubbles. (series of images)

Photographer	Post Link
@azamsohrabi	Registering beauty and feeling in single bride photography

https://images.hive.blog/DQmZhzmJMDueJQ1rN1HwJoM7wYqc2QKUBJYMPpL7YwHNUeC/Artificial-Symbol-Sign-Publicdomain%20(4).jpg

Photographer	Post Link
@cc0pics	Oh My Goodness

Photographer	Post Link
@miljo76	European Carnival 2025

Photographer	Post Link
@steven-patrick	Food as art

Photographer	Post Link
@alokeen	Change life

Photographer	Post Link
@chanych85	Cold morning

Photographer	Post Link
@hiddenblade	Yapping using my camera

Photographer	Post Link
@goga22	My city - Part One

Photographer	Post Link
@macchiata	When Credit Doesn’t Click

Photographer	Post Link
@fatemehsohrabiii	My little sister Saba, happy birthday.🎂🎂🎂🎂

Photographer	Post Link
@silviabeneforti	The redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Photographer	Post Link
@papilloncharity	Some beautiful little birdies

Photographer	Post Link
@tattoodjay	Greens

Photographer	Post Link
@darrenflinders	I'm not sure what this is....

Photographer	Post Link
@russia-btc	🌍 The world through the eyes of a photographer

Photographer	Post Link
@rg2-foto	The Magic of Connecting with Animals [ENG/ESP]

Photographer	Post Link
@rocio.isab	Mixing birds with water [Eng / Esp]

Photographer	Post Link
@naveen.jogta	Whispers of Snow After the Firestorm

Photographer	Post Link
@plantfuljourney	Arbon castle

Photographer	Post Link
@plantasticka	Artists’ Picnic in Kaunas: A Day of Creativity

Photographer	Post Link
@buquiq	"The Gentleman of Havana: The Enduring Legend of the Knight of Paris" [ ENG ]

Photographer	Post Link
@scottshots	Lake Tahoe Surface Reflection Abstracts

Photographer	Post Link
@ellenripley	Nature Reclaimed: Walking through the Old Coking Plant

Photographer	Post Link
@marc-allaria	UNDERWATER MACROPHOTOGRAPHY

Photographer	Post Link
@azamsohrabi	Birthday photography; Register of endless joys 🎂🎈🎁

Photographer	Post Link
@sreten	Symbols of faith and pride: The light of the Temple and the shadow of Prince Lazar

TripleShots

We will now be selecting the top three TripleShots! The featured thumbnail will now get

6%

, the first runner-up will get

4%

, and the second runner-up will get

2%

beneficiary payouts from this posts rewards!

---

Today's Featured HotShot

Photographer	Post Link
@plantasticka	Kaunas Culture Fair in Photos: A Day of Art, Dance, and Connection

First HotShot Runner Up

Photographer	Post Link
@rg2-foto	Defying the Giant of Foam

Second HotShot Runner Up

Photographer	Post Link
@captainbob	From Engagement to Newborn

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and honor the selections today. Keep up the great work creating your content and thanks for sharing it here with us in the Photography Lovers Community!

~ Community Rules ~

• ALL PHOTOGRAPHY MUST BE YOUR OWN ORIGINAL CONTENT
• IF YOU ARE NOT THE PHOTOGRAPHER YOU MUST BE THE MODEL
• NO STOCK IMAGES UNLESS YOU ARE THE CONTENT CREATOR
• NO PLAGIARISM WILL BE TOLERATED
• ALL TEXT MUST ALSO BE YOUR OWN ORIGINAL CONTENT
  or otherwise sourced and cited!
• ALL NON-PHOTOGRAPHY POSTS WILL BE MUTED
• SINGLE IMAGE POSTS WITH LITTLE TO NO MEANINGFUL TEXT MAY BE MUTED
• ANY AND ALL USE OF AI
  IN YOUR IMAGES OR TEXTS MUST BE DISCLOSED
  WITHIN THE CONTENT OF YOUR POST
• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ONLY POSTS
  WILL BE MUTED
• SELFIES & DAILY SNAPSHOT POSTS MAY BE MUTED at curator discretion
• ACTIVE STEEMIT & BLURT USERS WILL BE MUTED

~ How to Get Curated and Be Featured Here ~

• SHARE 2 or MORE IMAGES IN YOUR POST
• YOUR POST MUST HAVE AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION INCLUDED
• MAKE SURE TO ANSWER YOUR COMMENTS & ENGAGE YOUR FOLLOWERS
• GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT!

We will not be curating single-image posts, especially with little to no description. This community is focused on high-quality content which includes what surrounds the images you share here.

We do not curate cross-posts

Don't forget to go by and support your fellow photographers by checking out their posts and leaving some meaningful and engaging comments. Engaging in the community is what helps build and grow it. We are all here to support each other!

_{Thanks For Stopping By To Appreciate The Beauty!}

Comments

[steven-patrick]

one-man team

oxymoron haha you have no team...

'poor pitiful me'

Nothing wrong with this old song by Warren Zevon 🙂

[castleberry]

I see that you understand. hahaha That was a good jam... but I feel more like this one is better fitting. At least, metaphorically speaking...

[steven-patrick]

ah my favorite Warren Zevon song haha just need to work through that complicated metaphor of fighting your backlog of posts with your keyboard...

[castleberry]

[goga22]

Dear @castleberry, first of all, thank you for choosing my two photos in this good and powerful company. And secondly, you need at least two more people to be your right and left hands. I love reading your sentences about your family. I can tell that you are having a lot of fun, as well as my son who went from a carefree young man's life in an instant to very eventful days with his wife and two boys. During the virus, someone is always sick, they have many sleepless nights, they wake up like zombies in the morning (that's what he says).... But. these are all sweet and wonderful problems, all parents go through them. I wish you wonderful days with your family and I wish you a quick relief from this not-so-easy job.

[castleberry]

Yes, i wake up everyday feeling like a zombie but it's a good problem to have. We have made many memories together and being a dad is just an experience I have no words for. I kept up well with the duties for quite a long time... so for me, it's tough to be so far behind. However, it has made making the report more fun since I can speed through and really pick out the shots I love most. I am already working on the Never Going To Catch Up curation report part 2 now. Scrolling down to get back to 17 days ago is killing me. hahahha

Thank you for your kind words of support. Cheers

[goga22]

❤️

[ellenripley]

Thank you for the mention, as always. Can you delegate some of your tasks to some other clever person? It sounds very overwhelming, the things you are trying to keep up with. Far too much for one person. Family definitely comes first. I hope you can find a solution and I know everyone here values what you do.

[castleberry]

I may put out some feelers for help curating soon. Delegating some tasks would definitely keep things going more smoothly all the way around. Thank you for your suggestion and for your kind words. I appreciate you!

[naitreart]

It is a pleasure to read you here again dear friend @castleberry, certainly the family comes first, so you have to devote the time it takes and when you have free time, take care of the rest. I would say that one of the most obvious solutions to get rid of all the burden would be to have one or two other people who can help you in the community so you don't have to worry about doing everything alone. As always thank you very much for the mention of one of my pictures, these compilations were needed to see all the talent that there is always in the community. Best wishes to you and your family, all the best, cheers!

[castleberry]

Thanks brother! I appreciate your kind words of understanding. I may be reaching out and seeing if a little help can be had soon. It wouldn't hurt to have a couple of curators to delegate some tasks to. I'm with you too, I love showing off everyone's talents and content here to help keep everyone connected. Take care and I am sure to see you soon. Cheers

[naitreart]

That's right, having one or two more curators who are constantly active could be very helpful. Nothing to thank bro, we're here to help. Take care of yourself too. Cheers!

[victorbz]

wow thank you very much for the double feature
and thank you for the hard work you're doing for all of us.
personally, i prefer to see less images in every hotshots set. even if i will pay the "price" of not be featured here often, but for my taste, less is always more, as well my photography taste is mostly different from most of the photo works publishing daily on Hive.
maybe you can publish some pull with the question - how many photographs people are able to "chew and digest" at one time. I don't talk even about to visit the artists featured here.

[castleberry]

That is not a bad idea. I'm considering a few options... Alokeen mentioned To do a few more short-form reports and then a longer one for the weekend. I'm still trying to figure it out.

I just hate to skip over amazing shots and we get so so many my OCD kicks in and I feel like I have to share the images. I know a lot of users don't get the support they deserve for the content and the work they do.... and it's my way of kind of giving back. But, I have debated on the digestibility as well as data use for folks in other countries where it might cost more on their internet just to load the images or break their mobile devices. hahaha

I appreciate your input and I am a Less IS More guy myself in many ways... especially when it comes to art. Thanks again my friend.

[alokeen]

Dear friend @castleberry, I completely understand you like no one else. Combining your life with such work is incredibly difficult. I was on the road for a whole week, and was only home for 3 hours out of all 7 days. There was no time to study at all. This work that you did is a TITANIC amount. I often review collections, and 70 authors is a very large amount of work and time. My suggestion is Monday, Wednesday, Friday: select a maximum of 10 authors, and on Sunday to make a full collection of all authors. That is, there will not be 2-3 big ones per week, there will be shorter ones, and more people will be able to evaluate the works. At the end of the week, the general result will be summed up. Good luck with the renovation and time for your family.

[castleberry]

That is a really good suggestion. It can be titanic just scrolling and clicking and copy/paste copy/paste. I wish I had more time to comment on the actual posts and engage more socially. I'm considering asking for some help soon possibly. So, we/i will get it sorted soon enough. For now.. i am just trying to have fun catching up. You have been on a roll again so keep up the great work and thank you for your time to comment and thoughtful and kind comment brother! Cheers

[rg2-foto]

Wow thanks @castleberry for noticing my work, I'm so glad to have been mentioned and selected for the hotshots. Your support is very valuable and motivating. Once again. Thanks

[castleberry]

I am sorry i missed the opportunity to get you more votes when you posted this. Your post had some great shots and your position in the top 3 is going to get you 4% of this post's total payout. Thanks for sharing and stay motivated. You have some amazing photography. Looking forward to seeing more as I catch up. Cheers

[rg2-foto]

Thank you, you are very kind. I am uploading almost every day. In the black and white community. I hope you like them.

[cc0pics]

Thank you for the post.
It is very kind of you to put me on there.
I am looking forward to posting more.

Btw. Also a big thank you to everyone who posts great images, It is super fun to look at them.
I am still learning and seeing some inspiring images is great for that.
Have a great day community!

[castleberry]

There is definitely a lot to look at and many different approaches and styles of photography... not to mention subject matter. Thanks for commenting and engaging in the community. Cheers

[themyscira]

Again wonderful contributions selected, great class your work. Have a wonderful day.
!PIZZA
!LUV
!hiqvote

[castleberry]

Thank you for taking time to appreciate and comment.

[honeydue]

Thanks for the shoutout @castleberry! <3

[castleberry]

That was a cool post and your featured shot was irresistible! I had to share it. Thanks for commenting.

[cc0pics]

I have looked at your post. It is great.
The ice looks super cool.
Thank you for making Hive a beautyful place.

[mandragora88]

👌

[castleberry]

[azamsohrabi]

Thank you dear @castleberry for your support and mention. I am very happy to be among you.

[castleberry]

You had some great contributions to this round of curation. I noticed you have much more. I am catching up and about 2 weeks behind so I will see you more soon in the next curation post. Keep up the great work.

[azamsohrabi]

Thank you for your kindness. I will always be by your side and will remain in this curated collection and your professional and beloved community, continuing with strength. Thank you.

[hiq.smartbot]

@themyscira, the HiQ Smart Bot has recognized your request (1/2) and will start the voting trail.

In addition, @castleberry gets !PIZZA from @hiq.redaktion.

_{Discord. And don't forget to vote HiQs fucking Witness! 😻For further questions, check out https://hiq-hive.com or join our}

[pizzabot]

PIZZA!
Hive.Pizza upvoted this post.

$PIZZA slices delivered:
themyscira tipped castleberry
_(4/15) @jlinaresp tipped @castleberry

_{Join us in Discord!}

[hivebuzz]

Congratulations @castleberry! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You published more than 450 posts. Your next target is to reach 500 posts.

_{You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP}

[russia-btc]

Thank you for the work done and the kind, positive comments - I found several interesting authors for myself! I wish all participants well, and cool shots!
!BEER

[castleberry]

That is the hope.... that we all can get more connected with stuff that might just get lost in the endless feed of content. Thanks for taking the time to comment and for your positive motivation. Cheers

[joyyyy]

Thank you @castleberry for the support

[castleberry]

[fatemehsohrabiii]

Thank you very much🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[castleberry]

No, thank you!

[jlinaresp]

!PIZZAThank you for including one of my photographic works in this lovely selection @castleberry friend!... Big applause for all our telented #photographylovers photographers!!!... Have a great week!

[castleberry]

You are very welcome. I'm sure there is more to come as I get caught up on all I missed. hahaha

[chanych85]

Thank you for the mention and for your work!🙂

[castleberry]

You're very welcome.

[tonyz]

Nice to see My PussyBar shot!
Thanks for all the work you do!

[castleberry]

It was hard not to share that one! hahahaha I really enjoyed that post and the shots you got. The comments were pretty funny too. Cheers

[tonyz]

Haha, thanks! Great to hear!