Getting the Right Photos for Orchids, Tangle Ferns and Grasses
It is a pity that in an easy to find place in this site there is not a photo guide as I have found out that to get a good id for certain plants I need a photo of certain parts. Now while taking photos in my backyard means that I can always go back and get another photo if need be, not knowing what I need to get in a photo when further afield means that I can not easily go back to get that missing shot.
So here is my summary of what is needed for what.
Orchids
In order to get the orchid properly identified, you must get a photo of the flower. Thankfully I learnt that from the orchids in my own back yard so when I went for a wander down a track the other day and saw orchids, I knew exactly what to photograph.
Tangle Ferns
Sadly I did not know at the time that I first came across a tangle fern that in order to help with identification I needed a photo of the back of the fern. That was not taken in my back yard so I will have to wait a while until I am roaming up that ways again to get a photo so that I can get an accurate id.
I think I will take photos of all of the underside of leaves for all ferns that are not in my backyard from now on.
Grasses
Close ups of the seeds or flowers is vital to get a good id of the grasses and again I was not aware of this when I was wandering away from home. Thankfully the photos that I took were large enough so that I could take a cut and not reduce it to get a large enough photo of the seed heads. However, if I had known this before I could have also got the photo and maybe got an id straight away instead of having to make more photos.
Summary
Hmm, I guess I should get an overview photo as well as a close up of leaves, flowers and berries if present for all plants. And the underside for ferns.
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tangatawhenuaΗμερομηνία
Σεπτέμβριος 7, 2015Περιγραφή
Growing on a path, leaf has a ridge on the front and a groove on the back. Also a dried flower stalk as well as another flower stalk growing. Top of the leaf is split.
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tangatawhenuaΠεριγραφή
Sun orchid finally flowering on a track in Henderson Bay after about 6 weeks of just buds.
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Very good! I tend to add "hard to ID without flowers or fruit" to so many plant observations on iNat... The reproductive structures are vitally important, simply because most good keys use those to distinguish species! More photos definitely make ID's easier and more reliable too. :)
thank you for that sambiology :) I wrote this so that I would be reminded of what I need to do for photos until it becomes second nature for me :)
Anyone can create a guide here /guides, every time I come across a new field of study that I don't know anything much about, I create a guide for it. The system can relatively automatically collect up a set of photos, but then the learning starts - under each species I collect together all the resources and photos that I can find to help me identify the species. All my guides are a work in progress and need a lot more work, but I learn a lot and maybe they help others. You can also add other users as editors, so more than one person can update the guide. And you don't actually have to "publish" the guide so that others can see it, so if you don't think its useful to others yet you can simply use it for your own online reference.
(of course it would be nice if the experts created the guides, but they don't ever seem to have time, and maybe actually starting at the same knowledge level as those who will want to use the guide is an advantage :-)
Thank you for your comment tony_wills . :)
I have been to the guides page and used some of them to try and identify bumble bees and butterlfies. Also, as they are all about identifying species, I never thought that they could also be used for non identify things. I will have a look around there and see if I can do a "How to take photos" and put up photos of good and bad photos to really help. I have seen comments on some obs, and not just mine, that other photos are needed so a guide may be helpful to others.
Also knowing now that I can write one and not publish it would be such a great help because at the moment I have bookmarks and saved docs and notes for Houpara versus Five Finger so I can get them right! Putting that all into a guide so I do not have to look in so many places for info would make life much easier! But having it public when there are so many experts here, (your self included to me) would be scary! Will have to think about that one.
Once again thank you for your koreo :)
For example you could perhaps do one for ferns and on the main guide page have a few tips of what general things need to be photographed (although only the first few lines of text on that page are displayed, you can click on the "more" link if there is a lot of text). Additionally when you click each image you go to a full page for that species, which can have lots of text and more photos.
Great to see what you have written - I had just had a look at creating a guide and it seemed to be only for species and I was thinking my photo guide would not fit! But will have anotehr look and see what I can come up with :)
I have now published a "Getting Good Photos For Identification " guide
https://inaturalist.nz/guides/2465
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