PARK WATCH Article September 2025 |

Citizen science macro-photographer, Reiner Richter has logged over 382,500 observations on inaturalist, topping its leaderboard worldwide

Caption: Lovable Jewel Beetle (Castiarina erasma) (Reiner Richter/iNaturalist)

I am out most days (when it is not raining, I’m not totally crazy) walking around the bush with my camera taking photos of small things in particular.

I take photographs of plants, animals and fungi for the pleasure of finding new species for myself, but also so they are in the public record. I like that my observations and those of others may be helpful in the future for the rest of humanity.

I like to find unusual organisms, something that people would normally overlook. Although I am not a twitcher I may even photograph a bird. I don’t actually record that many birds (they make up less than 3 per cent of my records) as there are already a lot of records out there (87 million on the Atlas of Living Australia out of a total of 151 million).

But with all that I have yet to explore underwater or that entire other universe of microscopic life.

I have been using iNaturalist for recording my observations since 2016, as have more than 100,000 people across Australia. Although possibly overwhelming at first, the platform is quite powerful in what it can do, including suggesting identifications (based on previous observations) and complex filtered searches.

There are phone apps you can use but I mainly use the web interface via a desktop browser for efficiency. My observations can be found at inaturalist.ala.org.au/people/reiner