But, you can see the eye and bill. And the wings, legs, amd tail.
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I swear, no sooner had I posted those awful bird pics, and a bobcat surprised me by walking through my yard. But was I ready? no
Could I handle the camera in my excitement? no
but here it is.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152084080
And, in broad daylight!
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No accounting for non-birders…
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A Greater White-fronted Goose, taken from 131 yards away on an iPhone 6 through the lens of a spotting scope on a very windy day.
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Here are my favorite image flops
Roseate spoonbill blobs
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140985024
“Certainly in a tree” swallow
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140922478
And then this titmouse pic I took today
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152085228
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This is mine, it would be a rather uncommon damselfly, and that is why i posted it, but it never got confirmed. Not any competition to some of these though.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120838681
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Oh, sure. There’s photos even I won’t post.
Which, given the quality of what I am willing to post, should tell you something about how bad it can get. 
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This thread has me wanting to make a Worst Photos project where we could collect these to point people who are insecure about the quality of their photos to. “See, new person, your photo isn’t that bad. Can you believe I uploaded all of these?”
It would have to be self-added observations only though, and there isn’t a submission model for that:
So I’ll just have to bookmark this thread and point people to it, since everyone here is only posting our own. And maybe I’ll make a private project for myself or a tag (eg. “Star’s worst pics”) and use it to collect all mine.
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It’s a nice idea. Go ahead
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Still much better than the photo I got years ago from my friend’s living room when surprised by a bobcat casually strolling about the yard as I was just glancing out the window. Accidentally focused on the window frame. Obs isn’t on iNat, should find the picture on my hard disk when I get home.
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I didn’t mention that it was beamed up into a UFO shortly after that photo was taken.
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Well, did you at least get a photo of the UFO?
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That Steller’s Jay linked to above really isn’t that bad, so I posted this Harbor Seal. In the rain. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152101033
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@polypody Your bat image may be the best worst mammal documentation! Love it. My nighttime Black Bear in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada last August might deserve honorable mention.
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I can definitely relate to fish pictures from above the surface! For example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146625349
or https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141184780
or maybe even https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133707106!
Right now I’m just procrastinating sorting through a few hundred pics to upload to iNat…
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I was embarrassed by this one of a Guayaquil squirrel, but it was my only photo so it had to do.
Then in the comments someone linked to this Guayaquil squirrel observation (not mine).
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This picture which i thought was so bad for how close i was made me go out and buy an actual camera.
https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/194830150/original.jpeg
Which then let me make this observation
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/119939726
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As long as you realize this is true of poison ivy, stinging nettles, skunk cabbage and gingko berries. For obvious reasons, a lot of these require strategy to get closeup shots.
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This is a great topic for encouraging me to ‘lift’ the filter a bit for photo submission standards.
And maybe it’s not a bad exercise to occasionally throw something up which you clearly saw but ‘not so clearly’ photographed to judge how well-tuned the identification is for a species.
Here’s one I put up the other day of a little wren that bounced around so much I was only able to get this:
Of course, being a bird, the choices get narrowed fairly quickly. I got confirmations
in just minutes after posting.
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