I have a biology degree from Fresno State but am not employed as a biologist and have no particular education in identifying anything.

Most of my submissions have been from just hiking around trails. I typically take pictures of every species which I think an expert on the area might be able to ID from photos. This is biased more towards plant submissions since plants do not move and I know more about them. A dedicated birder, or someone who knew a lot about insects would leave the hiking trail with a much different set of photos.

Another of my projects is an attempt to record every species of animal found on a small suburban lot in La Habra California. My record keeping is not particularly scientific. I periodically resubmit species which I keep seeing, or which I still have trouble identifying, or which I just happen to take good pictures of. Still, it at least shows just how diverse the life in a small space is. I am trying to get it to the point that the records make it clear what is a rare visitor, what is seasonal, and what is common. So I plan to start resubmitting many species which I have not posted in a month or so.

When I make it into the ocean, I have also been recording all the species I can get pictures of while free diving.

Most of my extreme macro of ants, spiders, and other arthropods not on slides is done with a Mitutoyo 5X microscope objective which has been attached to my camera. To take the photos I use a Stackshot which moves the camera and takes photos. For arthropods on slides I am now using a Nikon LaboPhot microscope. Generally I put my camera on silent shutter and continuously take photos as I slowly focus through. In both cases I stack the photos in Zerene Stacker.

I have a bunch of old records from Calflora:
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/contrib_profile.cgi?seq=104142