Long-Term Observation of a Pond Water Community: Casual or Not?

The species you find in the jar should be recorded as wild in the pond on the day you took the sample. But you need to make clear that the life stage you photograph maybe weeks later may not be what was in the pond on the date of collection. If a creature appears in the jar at a later date, you probably don’t know if you collected it as an egg, a pupa or some other inconspicuous life stage.

I think the discussion is muddling two things, the authenticity of the photo and the record. Photographers can be very picky about whether a photo was really taken in the wild, and rightly so if you are putting it in an exhibition of wildlife. But for iNaturalist purposes, the photo is to allow verification of your sighting and it doesn’t affect the record whether the photo is taken in the field or later at home.