Yes, I acknowledged your reply and have seen your awesome postings. Sincere regards.
Upon getting phone that attaches GPS points to pictures, Iāve developed a good habit of spending time after every outing decompressing and uploading those photos to iNat. Itās nice to just take photos and worry about the rest later-- Iām doing a much better job at actually looking at whatās in front of meā¦ I feel like I used to focus too much on making an observation right then and there, which slowed me down and just distracted me from reality.
I have to use iNat nearly daily for work, so itās helpful to have the choice to put off uploading things as long as I want to as well.
Plus, itās fun to review what I saw on a voluntary outing a few hours after it ends :) itās like a visual journal entry!
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Yeah, same. As a result of iNat and all the cool dudes I get to meet, I pretty much only hike by myself now. I actually am super reluctant to go out with other people, lest they assume we will be hiking together 
ā¦ I also frequently just randomly see something in the distance and wander off trail for sometimes quite a whileā¦ just me being a bird thrashing about in the underbrushā¦
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Thatās not too bad. Before I got iNat I maybe had about a thousand photos. Now, howeverā¦
I definitely take a lot of photos and videos now because when I first got iNat, I was surprised at the lack of past photos I could upload. So now, I take as much photos as possible just in case theyād be useful in the future
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Loving all of these answers!
As for me, I find myself shouldering my field pack and getting outside more often than not. Unless Iām having a pain day on the scale of ā
I Wanna Be Sedated ā to āPlease, just shoot me nowā, Iām walking around somewhere. Even if itās not very much, or very far. Which means, eventually, fewer high pain days.
If Iām having one of my āfunctional-but-not-particularly-mobileā days, thereās always the Wildlife Drive at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Itās good for the inside of my head, because I can distract myself from thinking about whatever hurts. Also, for much of the Wildlife Drive loop, the Refuge staff want you to stay in the car. Bison are testy beasties at the best of times.
But the best part? Coming home, and sharing everything Iāve seen with The Doctor, and all of you.
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To say the least, it has made me more aware of my surroundings. I never really paid attention to life around me, especially living in a large, modern city. I used to take the shortest route before iNaturalist, but now I try to take routes that could expose me to areas where I know life is thriving. It rekindled an old interest in nature, which was buried by the haste of time, and Iām very grateful for that.
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āBuried by the haste of timeā¦ā Elegantly phrased!
Even though I was always looking for bugs and birds and fossils pre-iNat, I feel now like I went through the world half-blind to all the more complex and subtle wonders I might encounter, and like I could have gotten so much more out of some of the travels I was so lucky to take. Now I take at least two cameras with me whenever I go anywhere and slow everybody down with my photographs and sound recordings, and I wouldnāt have it any other way.
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One small change:
Whereas before, I might just have let something go in my Grinnell journal as āan unidentified _____ā (fill in the blank with a broad-level taxon) if I didnāt have the appropriate field guide, now, I may consider uploading it to see if I can get a name for it.
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iNat has really given me the push to explore more local parks and through it Iām able to find new locations for me to explore! I walk nearly daily with the little push that iNat gives me towards exploring every nook and cranny and taking that time to seek out new creatures. I check the locale maps for creatures I havenāt seen before and add that to a mental checklist before going there to try and seek it out.
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One thing I began wondering about recently: will the answer to this question differ according to whether iNat introduced someone to nature, or an existing nature lover discovers iNat? Some things I see on these forums almost seem like a āBorn-Againā experience ā someone who hadnāt been very aware of nature before is suddenly a power observer.
I came at it from the other direction: from a long life of appreciating and observing nature, and iNaturalist is only the most recent outlet for this interest. In some ways, this may prevent my becoming a power observer because the thought of stopping to make an observation ā shifting my focus from nature to photography as I concentrate on how to get a suitable picture or series of pictures ā feels like digital media coming between me and nature.
When I open my observations page ā and letās say I filter for Rubiaceae ā I see this:
Eight observations and the same number of species. Not many by some iNat usersā standards. But I remember all of them. For each of these, I can tell you where I was and, in a general way, what I was doing that day.
In contrast, when I have worked as a field technician collecting data, I donāt remember every data point. It was expected that I wouldnāt remember every data point; thatās why we used data sheets. (For you folks with observations in the five digits, with multiples of a given species, do you remember them all?) What I did as a field technician feels very different from what I do when Iām out enjoying nature. Thatās okay because it was a job ā I was getting paid. It isnāt the kind of thing I would do on my own time for free. If I used iNaturalist the way some power observers do, I would feel like that was happening.
What iNat has changed is how I spend my screen time. Instead of umpteen different forums which I felt obligated to keep up with, I am now just down to reading these forums, doing some identifying, and then stepping away from the screen.
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I suspect it may depend somewhat on the types of organism one is interested in.
I mean, sure, there is a sense in which focusing too much on getting the photo/adding to oneās species count, etc. can interfere with experiencing and appreciating the here and now.
But for small and often fast-moving arthropods, going out with a camera allows me to see an entirely different level of detail than I could if I relied only on my own eyes. The photos enhance my experience. I also find that the sort of concentration required for photography results in an amplified awareness, because it channels my attention to the particular scene or organism I am photographing.
So I see a camera not as a barrier between me and nature, but a tool that supplements my senses.
This applies for me on the other end of the organism spectrum as well ā a telephoto lens (or binoculars, if you prefer) is a fantastic way to get a good look at birds that would otherwise just be distant blobs.
Photo or audio documentation also has the advantage that it is possible to revisit what one saw. I have rather poor visual memory, but photos vividly evoke that particular time and place and experience. And documentation means that it is often possible to retroactively make sense of something that one could not interpret at the time.
As far as observation counts go: yes, there are users who do seem to photograph everything in sight without much care or attention with the sole goal of uploading as many observations as possible. There are also users with tens of thousands of observations who put time and effort into each individual observation, and they have gotten those numbers through the amount of time spent out photographing nature. Some people choose to document things repeatedly, or to upload all the material they have; others are more selective. The numbers alone donāt tell us much. Whether a person has few or many observations, it certainly doesnāt make them more or less virtuous or ābetterā naturalists than people who make different choices.
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Your comment reminds me that I would never have gotten into moths or mosses as much as I have without taking photos of them. Sure, I could use a loupe on the mosses (the moths donāt like that very much), but for both groups, I am nowhere near an expert, so I need all my field guides and manuals with me to attempt identification - and I canāt carry that many into the field!
Actually, for moths I rely on iNatās AI to give me a first clue (and then I turn to field guides, etc.), but I donāt make observations with my phone, so I canāt use the AI in the field. Not to mention that many places I go have no cell service (yes, even in densely populated Massachusetts).
I also make lots of observations of common plants and other organisms as a way to document what species are around at this point in this century. Yes, that means I have MANY observations, but thatās not at all why Iām doing this. If anything, I take lots of photos precisely because it forces me to go new and different places and to learn at least a little about everything I see. And I certainly appreciate the here and now, even those species I canāt photograph - the young Red-tailed Hawk sailing overhead screaming for food, the tiny Wood Frogs hopping away faster than I can photograph, the spiders who are so beautiful but impossible to photograph without disturbing their webs, the Carex seedheads arcing outwards that I know myself well enough to know I will never key them out, the curving red base of Populus leaves where they attach to the stem, and so on.
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Iāve noticed the biggest change in my routine is when I am identifying. It has, for better or for worse, almost completely filled the space in my life that video games once filled. Overall, I think thatās for the better as Iād rather be spending my time helping others ID their observations and learning a thing or two myself. Not to mention my teachers are a little more lenient with me IDing in class compared to my classmates who are gamingā¦
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There were two bird platforms; the evil one has since been crossed out.
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Yes, iNaturalist has definitely influenced my behavior and routine! Itās made me more observant of the wildlife around me and more conscious of the different species I encounter. I find myself paying closer attention to details and actively seeking out new observations. Itās become a part of my daily routine to check in on whatās been recorded and to explore different sound observations which has been really interesting.
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It sounds like your new routine has brought some positive changes into your life. Itās great that youāve found a fulfilling way to spend your time and contribute to the community. Plus, itās nice to hear that your teachers are supportive of your interests!
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