What's the worst pic you uploaded to iNat?

I’d be happy if I could with a press of a button turn off the wind for a moment while photographing flowers. Use a tripod, they say - well, that doesn’t help in windy conditions at all.

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I’m not sure that would be as much fun – or rewarding. Removing foliage could also possibly remove identity cues.

And have you heard of the ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) craze in ‘fine art’ photography? There’s a lot of that going around. Intentional, ‘impressionistic’ blurring of photographs by setting a slow shutter speed and introducing camera motion for effect.

There’s a few big advocates of this in my camera club and I just find, as a naturalist anxious to NOT blur things, the whole thing a bit too much for my artistically-challenged soul.

And some ICMers go out of their way to buy very expensive, high quality but MISMATCHED lenses to give them the effect that they’re after. I struggle to understand this. Heck, buy a cheap lens and a little tube of petroleum jelly and you should be all set, right?

As for future tech – don’t be too sure. I’ve seen prints made from 100+ year old plates that absolutely blow away digital stuff for captured detail.

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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/162444780

This one, I had spent the better part of an hour watching it intermittently zoom back and forth but I needed to leave and wanted to get at least a picture

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I try to upload just a photo of fur or a foot as the first photo with a disclaimer about graphic content. If i dont have multiple photos I try to use the marker feature and scribble over the graphic parts in a color thats not too distracting.

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I love this topic! Here are my two worst offenders:

Sculptured Resin Bee
Alabama Hogsucker

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Does your camera have a sports mode (for action shots)?

HMMMMM. yellow belly/tail & spotted brown back

Female baltimore oriole, perhaps? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Baltimore_Oriole/photo-gallery/306381531

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It has all sorts of fancy modes and I know how to freeze action using flash. But none of that helps with getting a proper focus lock and controlling composition and angle when trying to photograph details on a plant flopping around in the wind. Pretty much the only thing that helps is holding it so it can’t move which limits the sort of pictures one can take. I usually end up taking a ton of pictures and deleting most of them.

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“dog’s nose art” lol I feel you. Can’t get any pics from any windows in my house

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That’s pretty bad! :-)

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Any of my Cetacean photos. I live on an island in the Pacific and I still can’t get a good photo of a whale.

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Lol, now that’s pretty funny

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Stenolemus giraffa from Kununurra WA 6743, Australia on March 03, 2022 at 07:48 PM by simono · iNaturalist

Infuriatingly, this is the only observation on iNat of this taxa.

image

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I love emesinids!

And yeah, I think the contrast and pattern of fabric is just too enticing for autofocus.

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That is truly jaw dropping! Great detail in the seaweeds!

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Here’s a new horrible bird picture in the form of a bird ID quiz:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165990573
Early June in Austin, Texas, and the blur doesn’t seem to match any of the resident species of the area.

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Here I have another bad photo that I took in April .

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I think you nailed it!

My best efforts still match your original ID.

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Toughie. My best rescue effort:

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Not bad… How’d you do it?

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