I have been exploring leaves with a Chinese phone “microscope”. The resolution is pretty low, but I personally get excited to see details. I was wondering to what extent such can be of use for iNat. I have only submitted such once to show a frass pattern of a leaf miner:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189170747
I have some close-ups like these:
(Is the ring a stoma on the leaf?)
(I have no idea what hatched from these minuscule eggs)
Are they any good?
Yes, and no. Because these are not the kind of views most of us identifiers know, we’re not going to be able to identify them. You can overcome that problem by also posting photos of the whole plant, the leaves, etc., in addition to the microscope photos. That will teach us new things about the organisms. I think these close ups are at least interesting and educational, and would be happy to see them. (You might consider joining the project “Microscopy” or one of the other microscope-oriented projects.)
Right. I will join the project, thank you!
Shot like these are awesome for fungi, btw. its not proper microscopy, sure, but you can get really clear shots of features that are often extremely hard to make out on tiny mushrooms.
I will try that, thank you for the suggestion. I guess lichens and mosses would reveal some detail, too?
Yes, absolutely lichens and mosses, too!
Basically anything with tiny features that cameras have diffcultu picking up if they dont have a macro lens
Thank you, I checked out some black tar spots on maple leaves, and it was interesting to a beginner. I’ll post them sometimes together with photos of the whole leaves.
That’s awesome! And don’t be discouraged if you don’t get an ID immediately, its still cool to share <3
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