Lots of great ideas here. I’ll figure out how to seek out geolocations that are underreported in this county, and for families that might be underreported for my county in particular (like the bumblebees, above). I’ll ask a few master naturalists to hook me up with local agencies who might have a specific need. I will also do more IDs. I know birds best but they’re very difficult for people to shoot with a phone camera. I went through 10 pages of local bird IDs last night but at last half of the photos just weren’t good enough to make a call. But I’ll do what I can.
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Off topic, but how would I know that people are excited about a particular observation? This forum, or somewhere else?
@dontfencemein I encourage your interest in bumblebees. There is a lot of interest out there in developing a community of bee observers that are as passionate and informed as birders.
Depending on your camera an inexpensive clip on magnification lens can help you get closer shots.
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Excitement is - IDs, comments, and fave the obs (also follow this obs, but the observer can’t see that)
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And sometimes private messages, too. I’ve been contacted several times now by either researchers or park officials with requests for more info on obscured rare plants. It’s fun to be able to lead a ranger on a hike to show them the location of something exciting. Usually it’s the other way around.
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One place I found interesting is the real time discussion button. And in the thumbnails in explore, when I see a number on the bottom left I’ll check for discussion. Or check to see if it’s been favorited. I’m still new to most of iNat.
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I think it has been mentioned here before, but I’d just like to reiterate that observations of common species are useful to the people using this type of data to help answer their research questions.
I think it’s fun to see how many places you can observe certain common species as well!
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I’ve had people get in touch with me requesting a picture from a specific angle for an observation and seeds from a flower I had posted.
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Since you mention macro, perhaps you might like to consider fungi and lichens as well as some of the more easily overlooked plant species like bryophytes? The AI system here still really struggles with many fungi (while many are inherently difficult to distinguish, I think they are also relatively under-reported compared to other groups). Getting an image of the underside can help a lot with many fungi species.
Depending how good your macro capabilities are, there is also a huge diversity of smaller insects and other invertebrates that most people never pay any attention to. Compared to the large telephoto lenses required for birding and other animals, macro can be a relatively more affordable and light/compact pursuit since you can achieve quite a lot with simple and affordable add-on macro conversion lenses or extension tubes.
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I have found that when I photograph a fish in a shallow part of a pond or a river it is usually hard to see because of the glare off the surface of the water. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements, an inexpensive computer program to crop and add light to my photos and I have discovered that the “Haze Removal” function of this software does a great job of removing the glare from the water, transforming an unidentifiable photo of fish into a photo where the fish can be identified. I understand that “Haze Removal” is a common function on photo editing software.
Another great way to do this, if you have a camera that takes filters, is to use a circular polarizing filter.
I’ve used my sunglasses to polarize, although haven’t tried with the iPhone. With my dslr, I have to set the focus and exposure first, then half-push ( preview) shutter, place the sunglasses, then expose. (Kind of “fools” the camera, if I’ve explained well enough)
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I’ll keep bees of all stripes in mind. I have a great fondness for them.
I’ve been waiting for rain to shoot fungi again this spring. I found a crazy purple mushroom last year (a violet cort?) and hope to find it again. I already have some high end macro lenses that I use for work, so your suggestion of shooting small stuff is a good one. Would distract me from wanting a telephoto lens. I can try to look into what invertebrates and insects would be valuable as data points.
YES!!!
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iNat is us.
We want you to contribute both high quality photography and identifications.
We explicitly want you to enjoy the connection between nature, us and yourself.
That’s it. It really is that simple.
Okay, I found what I was after! I discovered out in a roundabout way that Texas has a centralized program for citizen science. The program has compiled lists of organism types they want to track because they are rare, endangered, or otherwise important. The list includes bees/wasps, mollusks, rare plants, birds, and more. All things I’m happy to look for while I’m out hiking.
The programs use iNat to intake the observations, so that’s great, too. But here is a mystery. (Let me know if I should post this as a new question.) Each organism topic is a Project here, and it looks like I have to join each Project? Requiring me to join Projects for my observations to count strikes me as odd.
For example, a few years ago, I observed a California Digger Bee and submitted the observation here. In Texas’s Bees/Wasps Project, there are only 14 observations of this bee in my county, and mine isn’t among them, though it is research grade. I see 3 observations from other people that are also missing.
Why wouldn’t a Project automatically sweep in all observations of the California Digger Bees made in the county? I think iNat calls these “Collection” Projects.
So, my question is: Why would Texas set up their project as a member project and not a collection project? Do you need special training to join, so that the observations have higher value? There is no indication of that in the Project description. Or is it a social thing, so people can compete? (I’m not interested in that.) Why would Texas want to limit the data universe to only certain observers, especially when the data are already so sparse (at least for this bee example)?
And related, if I joined this Texas bee project here on iNat, would my old Digger Bee observation get folded in?
Thanks so much for posting this link. This is off-topic, please forgive me.
It caught my eye in the summary that I get emailed, and being a Nova Scotian I had to check it out. Alexander MacKay sounds like a very interesting man, and I think my grandfather was in Pictou at the same time (Schoolmaster?/ Asst. Dean) and would certainly have known him. Gramps (Percy Keeping) was also interested in everything about plants. Just an exciting connection for me. 
I must get over to the Museum of Natural History one day soon.
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