Simplifying how I upload observations
I have been rather particular about the way I upload my pictures here. For years, I would insist on using the deprecated observation form, and do all of the following things for each and every observation:
- Manually input the GPS coordinates from a photo's metadata, or figure out a reasonable approximation when it was not recorded with a photo. I would make sure the locality info for each observation from the same trip is consistent with each other.
- Select an uncertainty radius for the GPS coordinates, even if a photo did have coordinates in its metadata (in case of inaccuracy, especially in forests with bad reception).
- Crop every single photo, even if just a little bit. This marks each one as recently edited, so I can easily select all of one specimen's photos at once for uploading without discerning them from the blurrier or unwanted photos. Plus it reduces the file size slightly and sometimes helps with noticing where the focal specimen is.
- Put a common name in the description, even if it is just "Fly." Complete with capitalization and a period.
Plus some other things that are more necessary. Trouble is, I have a lot of pictures, and I have been procrastinating on uploading them so much that I am still stuck in my prolific Peru trip (and only recently crossed the boundary into the year 2017, finally). It takes a while, and the way my computer's photo editor frequently lags is demotivating. So, lately, I have acknowledged the unnecessity of these tasks and become more lenient, using the newer upload form, which has the benefit of automatically taking the GPS coordinates from the metadata. Being more fast and loose with location approximations, and not always trying to find a more specific ID myself when something looks unique. And now, today, I have decided I will finally stop the cropping. A smidge of extra environmental info or some black space from under the macro lens does not hurt. My restrictions are entirely self-imposed, and with this much backlog to work with, better go with quantity over quality (which nobody would notice anyway). I will keep on with the description thing, though; that is not much effort and feels like my signature. Maybe someday I will catch up to the present day.
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I like hearing the iNat process of others, thanks for sharing e_e. I've been using the newer upload form for a while, but otherwise, a lot of your practices resonate, including the crop on almost every image so it will be marked as "recently edited." When not cropping, I'll make a minute change to the image colors. I've been using "highlight recovery" to make an imperceptible change to accomplish the same task of "recently edited."
@muir Heh, I kinda wonder what the "normal" process is, if there even is one (or several). When I do not crop - which is gonna be almost every time now, I suppose - I can just rotate and then un-rotate the image to mark it as recently edited. Which I can do in my image viewer, without having to open up the editor at all, so that saves a bunch of time. Occasionally I do change the image colors too, if it is too dark to see the focal specimen clearly.
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