BTW, an infection on human body is an observation in itself. An infected cut could be safely marked as Bacteria. Fungal infection accordingly 
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The Handymanās Secret Weapon!
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I canāt find where I wrote it, but itās here somewhere: I refuse to upload photos of my fingerprints anywhere, not just here. Some people agree, some said I was being overly paranoid. To a degree I agree that Iām being paranoid based on current technology. I have no idea what tomorrowās technology can and will do though so I continue to refrain from uploading photos with my fingerprints in them. Each to their own though I guess.
Related, I understand why fingers in photos can be good (for scale). But I usually seem to be able to judge scale pretty well without prompts like human fingers. Maybe Iām deluding myself but I reckon I can. When in doubt Iād prefer to see a ruler than a finger
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I hadnāt thought about that, and while I agree, the risk is probably low. For me itās a moot point - my camera wonāt let me focus close enough to get my hands!
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Your post reminds me of:
- Scientists Extract Fingerprints from Photos Taken up to Three Meters Away
- Extracting Images from Reflections in the Eye
Maybe using biometrics for security isnāt such a great idea if they can be stolen easily? Much better to mistype a password 5 times and do a reset e-mail, I guess?
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But to use a ruler Iād have to remember to take it with me and to carry it in a way that I can conveniently pull it out for the photo. (I have a ruler in my backpack, for use in plant identification.) So youāre stuck looking at my fingers.
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Yes but I like your fingers. I donāt like mine :)
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In the old āI would like an iNat Hatā thread, I proposed an iNat handkerchief and @pisum made a proposed design that incorporated a āscaleā in the form of a checker pattern. I thought it was an awesome design.
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What I meant was I donāt mind seeing photos of fingers/fingreprints in other peopleās posts, but not my own fingerprints. Each person can make their own decision? I donāt find fingers a great sense of scale in general, but Iām probably kidding myself
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Iāve thought about including my hand/finger in photos before, but so far Iāve held back from it just out of nervousness of getting that close to something like a bee. 
Something Iād like to start doing is bringing a ruler with me to use for scale. It seems useful to keep on hand when going outside just in case.
For now though, I like to include a photo that isnāt cropped/zoomed in to give a sense of scale when itās possible. These observations of a fly and spider both have images like that included. Iām not sure how useful that is for others, but itās something that helps me a little.
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Ruler might be good for one bee, not sure what to do about many bees though. Interestingly, there are people who beard bees.
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Observation of Alkali Heliotrope (Heliotropium curassavicum) which includes a free ārulerā courtesy Altria Group and one of their helpful customersā¦
Nice one! I like the Heliotrope, but better be careful lest we start āteachingā the AI to identify cigarette butts!
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Nicotiana tabacum
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Homo sapiens littering. The butt is chemical laced plastic. Donāt want that showing up on taxon pictures for the plant.
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I was a bit iffy about whether butts are evidence of humans or not, as well. I think the Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) flowers are pretty, especially some of the cultivated varieties. For example, searching cultivated shows a few chocolate-colored ones.
Maybe someone could grow their own and make a cigar/cigarillo? Iād agree with it as being the plant if they had growing, flowering, drying, rolling, etc. pictured in the observation.
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That is the core flaw in bio-metrics, they cannot be reset.
However the powers that be (esp. those that sit in towers made of $) needs ways in which the common public are their captives forever - and what better than insidious bio-metric based monitoring.
As much as I know I really should avoid doing so, I love touching/picking up the things I am interacting with. I have several observations where I have my hand/finger in the shot because I picked up an insect or something. I donāt see anything particularly wrong with having them in the shot especially since, as you said, it might provide a sense of scale.
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In my own photos, I happen to know (from repeated measures) that the distal joint in my left index fingerāoften the closest to whatever Iām holding in my left hand to be photographedāis precisely 20 mm wide. I use that and other dimensions of my own fingers/palm to calculate the size of various fauna and flora. IF it is relevant to the ID of the object involved, I will often make mention of that dimension in the description of the observation.
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