Citizen Science & Photography

 Communities

Hi there  I have been participating in Citizen Scientists' web platforms since about 2010. I use them to feature my photography and to identify unknown species. I was just wondering if anyone else uses these sites and which ones are your favourites ? Some sites I use frequently are Project Noah, iNaturalist, JungleDragon, PhotoClub-Canadian Geographic and Macroderie. What are yours and how do you identify your subjects ? 

Project Noah was my first community that I joined I learned about being a member of National Geographic Your Shot it was meant to be a mobile phone application to help identify nature species from around the world. It was a great community to discover like minded explorers and I made a few good acquaintances along my journey. It is an online community dedicated to explore and document wildlife across the globe. "Noah" is an acronym for "networked organisms and habitats". The initial application was the brainchild of co-founder Yasser Ansari and it has been recently redesigned and upgraded web database of the natural world. Wikipedia Project_Noah

iNaturalist proved to be a great third choice for identifying all those critters I had no clue of what they were. You can see from the interface that you can download an Apple and Android apps to assist you in the wild I also found that the experts in the field were present in this site and was great to identify butterflies with the help of others. You may notice that the site interface doesn't rely on slick graphics to sell their tool. It is strictly focused on identifications and there isn't a strong connection to give the sense of community like other sites. Pure Citizen Scientists' all the way that I joined in 2016 due to the change of Noah from an app to a website. Wikipedia iNaturalist

JungleDragon is a fun website and community based in Europe it was my second choice to feature my spotting and I joined in 2011. The site is just pure fun to participate in where you get rewards with participation and a friendly and diverse community of peers. The site is super designed and so well laid out with neat little features to keep you interested and active. I have yet to figure out how to change my avatar on this site. 

Photoclub-Canadain Geographic is not necessarily used to identify species but it is a Canadian photography content site. Not a big fan of the design or functionality of the site but it proved to be a replacement of the National Geographic Your Shot when it closed down and became an Instagram featured site. Like National from the USA, Canadian Geographic is a magazine featuring the natural world and other stories and articles. Most notably they have a photo competition each year that has proved to be most popular. Wikipedia Canadian Geographic

Macroderie is an online community that highlights macro photography as a like minded international community, in its inception I have made the closest relations and friendships online. It is a community of forums and threads that features everything macro mainly photography driven content the site is based in the United Kingdom and is run by Jack along with a sister site called Explorness.com. I love the connections that were made early when the site was first established in 2020 that was the height of the popularity of the site but recently activity is waining on both sites. I will never give up on this community for it was here I met Jörg from Germany and Shan from India, I am in the works to visit Shan this summer in Mumbai and visit the Western Ghats along the coast of India. Both are super amazing photographers and it is my great honour to have developed these amazing and lasting friendships giving me a reason to get off my duff and explore the world. 

Other sites I participate in for mainly photography : YouPic; 500px; PULSEpx; Viewbug; Photocrowd and Flickr. Absolute favourite is my Flickr site it keeps me organised and on top of my photos since the beginning of my photography hobby. Wikipedia Flickr