I know the feeling well, mostly from trying to photograph insects and spiders which disappear as soon as I get the camera out. Once, on a bioblitz, I spotted a peacock spider but it quickly hid, and I’m sure there were a few people in the group who didn’t believe I’d seen it because I hadn’t got a photo.
Some days when I don’t have my camera, I’m almost afraid to look around me in case I see something really good and can’t photograph it.
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speaking of which…I saw a chinese cobra again(!) a few months ago when I was taking a walk. I didnt notice it so it looked like it literally came out from nowhere, all hooded up and slithering into the bushes. Third time unlucky making an observation for this species! One day…
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So earlier today, I was driving with my mom, and we saw two amazing ecological moments. For one, we saw a bald eagle on an urban lake near our house which was trying to hunt some loons. On top of that, we saw what we are both convinced was a pair of whooping cranes. However, my phone was dead, and her phone’s camera is essentially a mute point.
So, since I want some catharsis in my pain, what amazing ecological moments have you missed documenting because of technological problems?
Here are the pictures for reference.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63203614
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63203874
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I brought back some neat photos from my academic quarter in Costa Rica as an undergrad. However, my budget back then (when 110 film was still a thing) did not allow me fancy camera equipment. So the resplendent quetzal had to be enjoyed without being documented.
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What was your biggest mistake or missed opportunity?
For me, earlier in the summer I found a very large Atlantic Coast leopard frog (Rana kauffeldi) at a place where no one else has recorded them, but I accidentally scared it off before I could take my phone out and take a picture.
Also had a picture of a giant (and I mean giant) dead snapping turtle that got sucked into a dam spill off but I can’t find the photo anywhere.
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The thousands of observations I could have added from my time living overseas in a country with still limited iNat use, but can’t because I did not carry a camera with me then (was not legal for me to drive there, so I was restricted to bike and public transit, which meant carrying a light load, so no camera…)
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I went out into the central Australian desert on a uni field trip at the start of last year. Saw so many rare species, or at the very least species that you can only really find out in that area. This was a few months before I joined iNat, so I didn’t take near as many photos as I would’ve and missed out on a lot of great things. It’s a 15+ hour journey out there, so unsure if I’ll have the chance again.
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Putting off buying a digital SLR camera and telephoto lens until 2007. After my film camera was stolen some time earlier, I went several years without any camera (this was before smartphones came along of course and those flip-phone cameras were just not very good). I missed some good photo ops.
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For some reason I identified the mallard in this photo rather than the more obvious greylag goose. If I had picked the goose it would have been the first on iNaturalist.
Also failing to add any observations for years (life was busy).
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Most of my life experience. But the easiest is 9 days in Egypt, found 3 photos from there, 2 of the same species.
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Missing the Del Rio iNat BioBlitz in April 2018. I still regret not being able to attend.
scaring away a western skink down a steep slope, so i couldnt get any photos of it :(
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All those years before I used iNaturalist, when I just took pictures of pretty scenery instead of every beetle I met. In particular, I wish I had photographed a lot more things when I was in the UK, because who knows if/when I’ll ever be able to go back.
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2019 has been the most disappointing year of my life so far, largely related to an iNat missed opportunity. Slowly regaining the will to iNat…
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For years I only had a flip phone and no access to a camera other than disposable ones, and I especially wish I had been able to use iNaturalist during my sophomore year of high school because I went to Rome during February of that year and I know I saw a lot of wildlife because I sketched almost everything I saw but I have no way of knowing what these sketches are actually of now…
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I went to Taiwan in October 2018, I was very excited to see lots of species that I had never seen in my life; specially beetles, butterflies, ferns and orchids. One of my favorite butterflies are the ones from the genus Papilio, specially the subgenus Achillides, that are only found in east Asia.
I was hoping to see at least one of them in that trip, but I knew that I had a low chance to see one, they are not the most common butterflies and the time that I was going to spend on the field was going to be small. In the last field trip when we were going to get in the car I saw one flying right in front of my face, and then I saw it flying out of our view into the canopy. I ran to see if I could find it again unsuccesfully.
I am happy to say that I saw one, although the chances were not the best, but it would have been nicer to have a photo of it and been able to identify it.
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That time I went to Costa Rica for 2 weeks with a group of birders and thought the best part of being with birders was that they stood still for so long watching birds that I had plenty of time to look for lizards. Sincerely regret not taking photos of SO MANY birds there, since now, years later, I am an avid birder. Would love to have them to add to iNat now.
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Not taking pictures of the undersides of all the mushrooms I photographed in the past.
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I found some bright orange sea slugs and posted visually similar pics and regret that lol I made sure to state I did not take the photo but wanted so bad to let it be known they were there. I since removed the post but yea missed opportunity and learned a lesson!!
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