I really don’t have the energy to go find all my best photos and somehow code the best for each species.
Another idea… how about having AI create a type version for each species that is NOT copyrighted?
This is so frustrating that I can’t share photos of the birds I’ve seen in the area. This is not limited to birds, but some might be interested in the Hymenoptera or Lepidoptera or some other taxa group that I’ve seen. This seems like such a costly limitation for both the individual and to iNaturalist, and prevents us from sharing what we’ve seen and creating more interest in iNat.
It would be nice if there was a way to use your own photos, but the drawback is that I’d have to somehow flag which photo is to be used, and I have no idea which might be my best photo for a species (and I do have a few species over 1,000 in count… so it’s nearly an impossible undertaking).
How about using AI to create the species images for such lists if people prefer, so that they are not copyrighted and protected from use, and they are essentially thumbnails in any case.
If I’m understanding correctly, you want a list of species that you can go through, but limited to your photos or public domain photos? I don’t think that’s possible through thumbnails as photo quality is very subjective. Users curate the default photos for taxa based on what is most useful, and anything on iNat has the permission to be displayed on iNat. Very few images are public domain, though many can be shared for non-commercial purposes as I think most users leave the default license on. I don’t see how an AI could do what you want, as it can’t know what is a “good” photo by your or anyone else’s standards. However, maybe the life list feature is close to what you need? https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/natureguy?view=tree&details_view=observations
Are you looking to see the pictures of organisms you’ve taken when you go through your observed species list from your profile? If so, as the users before me have commented, there’s different ways to do that by looking through your observation timeline (where it lists map, grid, list).
If you’re looking to have the best photos of select species at the ready, you could also try favoriting them so you have them more quickly at your disposal.
I know it’s not the point of your post, but at the risk of digressing I’d just like to mention that AI is not necessarily a good solution for every issue. If iNat wanted to change the website to include this function, then they could just make that coding change. While AI is an encompassing term used for many different purposes, our current pop-culture usage of it has serious environmental ramifications.
Probably posting on my Facebook page for those interested in what is seen locally. Birds would likely be the top interest, and a lot of people have trouble telling the sexes apart. On my Facebook page I try and educate others about nature, and provide interesting stories about it, and using my iNat content provides another way of doing so.