My little friar bird https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/190668467
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This very well-lit fish https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155891685
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No wonder you made it your avatar.
Yep 
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Granted, it had less to do with my ability as a photographer and more with how incredibly cute the subject is.
I went there looking for grey seals, which are admittedly… less charismatic, but I’m not complaining!
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My absolute favourite is this photo of an ichneumon wasp cleaning its antennae. The insect feels just so expressive in this one to me:
Secondly, and for a similar reason, this photo of a larva of a sawfly is one I like a lot:
Then, there’s this close-up of a fly which has made me appreciate the beauty of insects that are usually seen as less pretty:
And finally, a flower photo which also happens to be the one that I use as my profile pic:
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I see this often in insects, mostly flies and wasps. It adds a lot of “character” to see their self-clean routines.
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Great shots! What camera and lens do you use?
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Thank you! :)
I just use my phone (iPhone 13 mini) with either a macro-lens (mine is from moment) or a botanist’s loupe. Both have 10x magnification. You can get awesome photos with just the loupe but lens is just more convenient and less fiddly.
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True. Also when flies rub their front legs together. It makes them look like they are planning something nefarious. :D
This is my best photo I think: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/175788340
And I don’t normally take animal pictures but I liked how this guy held still for me for several minutes and let me get really close to snap a picture: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/179010621
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Not objectively good photos, necessarily, but I think my favorite pictures I’ve taken for inat are of this Polyphemus moth from the past summer. It was my first time seeing one and she was so huge and fluffy, and incredibly chill with me getting right up in her space and taking as many pictures as I wanted (I think still drying out her wings? A bit is curled up.)
Zooming in you can see the resolution is not amazing and they suffer from depth of field issues but I think it’s about as good as it gets for photography with my old phone and shaky hands. Also I enjoy her sassy forelegs-crossed pose.
It’s hard for me to evaluate the aesthetic quality of my own pictures I think. I am usually inordinately pleased if I can get the correct focus depth without (noticeable) motion blur so I look back and go “wow, good photo!” even if it’s like, a plain beetle with my hangnail-y fingers in the background…
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My Polyphemus Moth is the one that has the most favorites and spotting it was quite possibly my favorite iNatting experience so far! I also have a pure-green sweat bee, sawfly larva and tiger moth I’m quite fond of. I like capturing small creatures in lots of detail, especially their cute little faces! :)
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This is only from yesterday but I think it’s now my best photo:
As I started photographing this huge carpenter ant, it either headbutted or tried to bite this asp I hadn’t even seen. This photo was taken after the attack.
The asp didn’t seem to care.
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So beautiful!
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Incredible
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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/188611332
Tenereal Oncopeltus adult on some others I think turned out pretty good. While not the best shot, still interesting to me.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/160723570
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/175784837
Two Zabulon Skippers that turned out great! Sunny and fairly in focus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185843930
Loaded Summer Azure larva observation, with a sweat bee stopping by the flower head the larva was feeding on and ants all around it.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164824339
Least skipper feeding on some sort of aster…
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/183262135
Orange mint moth that was so kind as to let me grab a photo
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180988259
Spicebush swallowtail that spat its osmeterium, allowing for a great photo
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Most of my photos are pretty average and in the case of birds they look more like photos of the general landscape, but this one starring an oystercatcher ( although you probably can’t see it) which I took on holiday in Trevone was unintentionally pretty good as a representation of the highlights of Cornwall.
and I quite like this photo of some Canada geese with a rainbow
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I found it! Now where’s Waldo?
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