Hello. I have only been on iNat for a few years and the massiveness of my ignorance is intimidating. I mostly observe in my backyard so I am mostly a birds and bugs poster. (Love plants, but, wow, my ignorance there is even more massive.) Would any of you be willing to share your internal dialogues while you are making observations? Example: when I am trying to get a photo of any of the Hymenoptera, I am usually saying to myself - I need a good antennae shot because flies have stubby antennae and bees have bent ones. Etc. As you can see, I am at the very simplistic level. So, I have been wondering what people with a little (or a lot) more expertise are saying to themselves (perhaps only half-consciously) when they are trying to get good photos of their favorite taxons.
Hi!
I like to look for specific things. Iāll use chanterelle mushrooms as an example. I usually think along the lines of:
- Where did I find it? Was it growing in the ground or from a tree? If they are growing from a tree they might not be chanterelles.
- What do the gills look like? Are they veiny and irregular, or straight? Straight gills mean they probably arenāt chanterelles.
- Color: is the mushroom bright orange through and through, or is it whiter on the inside? Bright orange throughout the flesh could mean itās something else.
Then I take pictures of everything: habitat, gills, etc.
No matter what I am observing, I like to get pictures from different angles. Some species are easier to ID if you can see things like the pattern on a spiderās abdomen, or the shape of a birdās tail. If itās a species Iām not familiar with, getting more angles and possibly an audio recording of its vocalization is something I try to do.
I hope this helps!
Mine is likely to disappoint-- typically something along the lines of
āooh! thatās cool!
ohhh what a lil guyyyyyyy!!!
youāre so cool! whatās your name lil buddy?
donāt run i just wanna take a picture!
damn it, it flew off before i could get a good one:(ā
Actually, your inner dialogue is similar to mine! LOL! Thanks for the laugh!
Mine too!
For plants, many arenāt identifiable unless they have flowers or fruits (this may look different than you are expectingālook up flowers for grasses, rushes, etc.).
Iām basically going through a mental checklist for flowering plants:
- In-focus shot of the flower/inflorescences showing internal detail that is visible without dissection (stamens sepals ovary etc.)
- Side view of the flower/inflorescence showing how the flower attaches to the stem, whether or not it is furry (pubescent) or shiny (glabrous).
- View of how the leaves attach to the stem.
- The underside of the leaf may hold the distinguishing info between similar species, but may be hard to get without touching; do NOT grab if there is the least suspicion may be a stinging/irritating species.
- Closeups of the stem/a picture of the bark can also be good info.
For many plants, all you need is shot #1, and so I continue down the list if either 1) I know the taxon well enough to know there needs to be more distinguishing info or 2) I donāt know what Iām looking at so I feel I should gather as much evidence as possible in case it is helpful.
Other mental checklists:
- Most insects/arthropods: get a top-down shot and a side-on shot (if possible if itās not too flighty). More details by bug group:
- Odonata (damselflies/dragonflies): lots of tiny characteristics on these guys so essentially in focus photos of the whole thing are important: the eyes/behind the eyes, the thorax, the wing pattern, the abdomen, and then the final bit of the abdomen where the genitalia are (a perfect level of detail will need to have the bug in-hand or with magnification in a super telephoto or macro setup). If all I can get is one side-on shot, thatās the one Iām aiming for since it shows the thoracic and abdominal patterns the most. Usually the wing patterns are easy enough to see even in non-ideal views of them.
- Butterflies: open-wing and closed-wing shots if possible.
- Caterpillars (moth/butterfly larvae): side view, top view, head capsule, plus enough shots to ID the host plant if found on one.
- Moths: best in-focus shot I can of the wing pattern. Same with skippers which donāt open their wings as much.
- Bees/wasps: pic of the face, top-down pic, also a pic of the abdominal pattern thatās revealed more for bumble bees in particular when they lift wings can be helpful, the wing color (how clear to dark it is).
Ferns and other non-flowering plants:
-
Ferns/liverworts/other: A view of the leaf structure + a view of the underside of the leaf if there are any sporangia structures there. If there are visible reproductive structures elsewhere, try to get those as well.
-
Mosses: just an in-focus closeup/most magnified shot I can. If itās dried out and you can rehydrate it (with your water bottle) that will help with ID accuracy. Noting habitat is good too. Overall, most need magnification so I kinda know Iām more just taking a pretty picture than figuring out the speciesā¦
-
Conifers: closeups of needle arrangement if available, clear view of cones if present, pics of overall tree structure/shape if possible, pic of bark if possible.
Fungi:
- Top side/underside in general, more specifically if it has the structure: cap, gills, stem, stem attachment if possible. Noting any bruising or discoloration/color that appears from oxidative reactions. Noting habitat/substrate and making it clear in the photo if possible: growing on wood? Dung? Dirt? Sand? Submerged log? Overall again itās just not possible to get to species level ID most of the time so Iām just taking pics cuz I like them and on the off-chance that it is identifiable. I also tend to skip really rotted fungi since theyāre essentially always unidentifiable sludge, and I do not aesthetically enjoy their photos, so thereās no real reason for me to record them, personally.
For birds you donāt really need any advice because most bird IDers can work off of 3 pixels for most birds given a location and 30 seconds to think about it. For the tougher birds, pics of the legs/feet and beak can be surprisingly helpful.
For mammals I think āboy I would love to see a live mammal thatās not a deer/squirrel some time, I wonder how people find mammals without being biologists with permits to set traps?ā But seriously, more often Iām running into scat or tracks, which I do not normally bother reporting since there are discouragingly few identifiers, I donāt know how to identify them myself or where to find resources, but Iāve heard providing measurements can be really helpful with tracks (I do not carry a rulerā¦ yetā¦).
when just exploring on my own, not looking for anything in particular:
- oh look at that. or what the heck is that? (or what is that thing doing?)
- is it safe to stop to observe?
- is it best to just look with my eyes or try to record the encounter? (if just looking, stop here and just look, otherwise keep going.)
- where is the light (or background noise) relative to the subject? what is the best perspective to get the most information? do i need to reposition or groom the scene (ex. move leaves out of the way, etc.)? can i reposition?
- video or photo or just audio?
- snap, snap, record, recordā¦
- did i get enough information to identify the subject or figure out whatās happening? (if not, repeat from #4)
- get a better context (ex. note the kind of tree the bird was in, note whether there are other individuals nearby, etc.)
- if thereās still opportunity, and itās worth doing, get a good artisitc shot / recording.
- make sure i have / get a good location.
sometimes, iāll have a rough idea of what iām looking for. for example, the other night, i came across a lizard that had crept into a hole, and so i came back with my camera, and hereās how that diaglogue went:
- whereās that lizard?
- oh darn, it went back into its hole
- let me try to wait for a while and see if itāll come back.
- itās not coming out. let me shine a light to see if i can see it in thereā¦
- nope. let me wander around for a bit, and maybe when i come back, itāll be thereā¦
- oh, look. thereās a rain frog that iāve been trying to get a nice video of for a whileā¦ and it looks like itās going to cooperate.
Me three, no, WAIT, I donāt want to EAT you!
And when I do get the photos even if itās just one crappy one I do say " Thank You!" Sometimes Iām more effusive if I know I have good photos!
Since I mostly photograph arthropods my inner dialogue generally goes along the line of;
- Remember, move slow
- Get a good enough shot
- Still there? Move closer
- That worked? Go for a handheld photo stack
- Still there? Is this thing dead?
- Oh crap. Itās just duff.
Quite the same here, but instead of
You should mumble something like āpleeeeeease let me take a pictureā very quietly and when itās done, a little āthank you Miss/Sirā without exclamation marks because little people are very polite and they like calm, I suspect. At least no study prove otherwise.
Sometimes they have a weird sense of humor.
oh for sure, i am always polite and calm with my little bug friends! but this was asking about internal monologue which can get a bit more chaotic!
Key things I look for when both IDāing and personally observing two of my favorite Taxa.
For pine trees good shots of:
Needles
Cones
Bark
Canopy
These four features should be able to get most to species. The closer the better.
Another note: Most young pine trees and seedlings can be next to impossible to id from photos alone.
For Orb weaving Spiders:
Both dorsal and ventral sides can be important (top and bottom). As well as leg features.
Get as close as you can. They are very small.
Focus is important. a phoneās autofocus will have trouble focusing on a spider in a web in most cases. Use manual focus if you can.
Lighting. Try to keep the sun behind you. that can make or break some great angles.
Try to approach them slowly. Orb weavers can not see very well but they are very senstive to vibrations. Tread lightly. Some are more jumpy than others.
Spiders are very small and some genera require microscopes to view anatomy to get to species. In a lot of cases genus as good as we can get.
Getting photos of the web construction is also helpful.
For everything:
āMust get a picture for iNat.ā
For arthropods:
āI sure hope thatās identifiable.ā
āIāll zoom in a little more and take another one.ā
āArgh, stop running away!ā
Afterwards, āugh, that oneās blurry, that oneās blurry, those five all look the sameā¦ā
For something I donāt recognize but think would be easily identifiable (birds etc.):
āGotta get a picture gotta get a picture oh my god itās right there.ā
āLetās sneak a little closerā¦ā
āOoh, that might be a good one.ā
āDamn, itās gone!ā
Because my brain is so addled with pop culture, I think of Darth Vaderās āsisterā line reading every time I see a California Sister. And I see them often.
First I think, āIs this a taxon I want for my iNat page?ā In the course of any given field day, I encounter far more organisms than I want to spend time photographing and uploading.
I love this question and thread.
There is a tiny plant species (Crassula colligata subsp. lamprosperma) that Iāve become enamored with the past years, and I am now the top observer of the species by a wide margin. People have largely overlooked it because it is so small, and the range documentation (here in Southern California, where it is an introduced species) is poorly documented. Soā¦ every time I run into a new population, I make an observation, and while I am doing so, my internal monologue is:
- Oh damn! Itās here too! What a discovery I have made!
- Whatās the lighting like right now?? [I prefer to take photos in full sunlight, and will often return another day if lighting sucks]
- How much time do I have to sit here and take a ridiculous number of photos, hoping to capture the tiny flower parts?
- Then after taking an absurd number of macro shots, I have to pull the obsessive, perfectionist demon off my back, and move on with me day, and I always find myself thinking āone of those photos has workā. Usually that ends up being true.
- Then closer to the end of the growing season for the species, when the plants are starting to wither and look sad, I find myself lamenting the end of this short (~4 month) window of time I get each year to investigate and document this species. And then I find myself reflecting on the serendipity of being a naturalist, and the funny and unexpected ways we fall in love with specific groups of organisms, usually from one initial chance encounter. I think to myself how what we choose to focus on is a kind of personal expression, and I realize thatās why I do thisā¦ :)
Wow! Thank you so much for writing all that out! That is very helpful!
[Also not strictly, or exclusively āinternalā dialogue, but ā¦]
The joy of learning how to communicate that, and the reward of getting to be Just Part Of The Scenery when critters get back to being busy with all manner of unexpected Wild and Natural things, that arenāt just cautious reactions to you looming into their space, and which the simplistic automaton models of āsoulless animal behaviourā could never imagine or explain them doing, is pretty hard to beat.
And mostly only beaten by when they actively engage you to join in and somehow be part of it.
Knowing how to quietly but unmistakably say āIām not the dinner youāre looking forā can be pretty useful too :D
What she said! Thatās a fantastic checklist for anyone wanting the best chance to identify the things theyāre seeing.
Sometimes I find myself yelling ālet me love you!ā to bugs that keep flying away or hiding from my camera. I have to catch myself when Iām within earshot of other humans that I do not know because it can sound very strange to anyone who doesnāt know me. Ha!