Everyone should know the process that is involved in choosing the OOTM. It is as follows:
- We look at all Observations made since the previous Sunday/Monday that meet the criteria for the OOTM (The OOTM is always for the previous Month).
- If any of the Criteria, like place of observation and member status, are not met the observation is excluded
- The photo needs to be in focus and is better if it is of something of scientific interest
- A corroborating identification is required from one of the specialists at the New York Mycological Society. If they can corroborate the genus and get it down to species all the better (sometimes this is not possible with the information available).
- Once we know it is in the club's territory, and that the observer is a member of the NYMS, we will ask the observer for permission to use the image (if they have not already given permission to use any of their images)
- If everything goes smoothly, which it rarely does, the image is loaded into Photoshop and
- the name of the photographer
- the Genus/Species (scientific and common names) of the observation
- the iNaturalist observation ID
- the iNaturalist handle of the observer
are overlayed on top of the photo.
- The observer is sent 3 links, one of the original photo, a second with a squared version of the photo, and a third as it appears on the iNaturalist project page
- The photo is posted as the cover photo for this umbrella project
- Further information is gathered and displayed in the "More Info" page for the observation
- The photo either in it's original form, or in an edited form is posted to all the NYMS Social Media accounts
The Observation of the Month is posted as the NYMS collection group’s banner (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nyms), on the society’s twitter page (https://twitter.com/newyorkmyc), and on our instagram feed (https://www.instagram.com/newyorkmyc/). Every observation is carefully attributed to the photographer who took the photo used (with their permission).
The following are the criteria used for selection of the OOTM:
- Observation must have at least one photo associated with it
-
PHOTOGRAPH MUST BE IN FOCUS (especially when blown up)
- Observation must fall under the myxomycetes/slime molds or Fungi Kingdom.
- The observer must be a member, in good standing, of the New York Mycological Society
- Observation must be added to one of the two official NYMS iNaturalist projects
- Fungi of NYC - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fungi-of-nyc-new-york-mycological-society
- Fungi Beyond NYC - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fungi-beyond-nyc-new-york-mycological-society (Please note the location parameters on the about section of this project)
- The observation must be made in the coverage area indicated on one of the two project pages listed above
- Observation should be identified to, at least, the genus level, by a reliable source
- Observations that are of particular interest, vis-a-vis specimens that are of interest from a scientific or conservation perspective, will be given preference
- Prefer photos that can be cropped to 760x320, squared, etc. – so some surroundings in the frame is best
- The most recent observations take precedence if all other criteria have been met.
The following criteria are used post-selection:
- The observer must give their permission to use said observation, with proper attribution, before the OOTW is posted (unless they have already given permission to use photos via the form).
- The observer will be credited with the photo observation with text indicating all social media accounts we have on file for them and/or a “Photo by …” text.
- The selected image may be cropped to fit the various formats.
You can read about the process of choosing the OOTM here
