I Have A Question For You Guys

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

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Dec 22, 2007
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Over the years, a few people have said I should make a coffee table book of some of my photos. I have thought about that. But what I am working lately is a power point presentation to augment my classes, and it gave me an idea. I am thinking about doing discs of hi-res images for wild plant identification. The images would be of the plants in all stages of development from spring through autumn. I'm still thinking about how, but I am so far thinking they would be done on DVDs, there would be text on each plant in word documents, and the documents and photos could be upload-able to a computer or any device that takes SD or micro SD cards. No idea how to make this workable with i-anythings yet, will have to look into that or some sort of conversion.

My question is, would there be any interest in this here?
 
I love the idea, but not sure how applicable that would be for me in the southwest. That's assuming you are doing regional identification.
 
Tech-1 said:
I love the idea, but not sure how applicable that would be for me in the southwest. That's assuming you are doing regional identification.
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Most of the plants are dispersed across a large part of the US and various temperate areas, but you're right I am not doing this one by traveling across country. These plants will be photographed here in the Southeast US. Though this is an area where people come on vacation a lot, so could be helpful to those coming here to hike and camp...
 
Oh, and the reason I asked here, is that they will also feature various Fiddlebacks as size references :)
 
I really like this idea Brian. This is right up my alley. I enjoy information like this.
 
I like the idea. I've always been disappointed at the resolution of the pictures in most books and cards. The plants never seemed to match what I was seeing. I was looking at business cards and found this place called moo that lets you make business cards with a unique design on each. They were kind of pricy, but it may be something to get you started. Google "moo" and it should pop up. An app would be nice, but you may also think about trying to work your way into another app by selling them the pictures and let the developers do the code and all.

In working up for my AT escapades, I know I spent about fifty bucks on apps like field guides and such. Some were O.K, but most were very hard to use as you can't really flip through it like you can a book. Putting the month on the picture would also help or maybe even a spring, summer, and fall picture.

If it were me, I'd focus on the GSMNP visitors as the customer base and go from there. Plenty of families and folks looking to "learn" something by visiting the park. However, most only visit the Cades Cove loop and the gift shops.
 
Perhaps could get with one of the IT guys and create an app where you snap a photo of a plant and the app identifies it and lists details regarding edibility and/ or medicinal usage. I think that would be incredibly useful in the field. Liability may be an issue, but I think you would have the same issues publishing a disk. Just a though...and I will take a finders fee of 10%[emoji1][emoji1]
 
consider to have PowerPoint with small picture and short info, that somebody can look though quickly and if find something "look like" then can go bigger pictures and word article
 
emoney2277 said:
Perhaps could get with one of the IT guys and create an app where you snap a photo of a plant and the app identifies it and lists details regarding edibility and/ or medicinal usage. I think that would be incredibly useful in the field. Liability may be an issue, but I think you would have the same issues publishing a disk. Just a though...and I will take a finders fee of 10%[emoji1][emoji1]
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You have a point, it is a sue happy world....and I am not overly fond of being in the working environments of lawyers and judges. Perhaps I should just keep it limited to presentations in my classes. Students have to sign release forms.
 
mistwalker said:
You have a point, it is a sue happy world....and I am not overly fond of being in the working environments of lawyers and judges. Perhaps I should just keep it limited to presentations in my classes. Students have to sign release forms.
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It's a shame, but don't let it discourage your great ideas. They have the burden of proof and could only hold you liable if the info you provided was incorrect. With an app you would have to worry about the camera misidentifying plants, possibly due to lighting conditions, angles of capture, or other phenomenons. With the book or disk, as long as your info is accurate, the interpretation of the plant lies on the person identifying it. There's been lots of books published on plant identification so the liability issue of that particular media must not be incredibly unreasonable.
 
I work in health care so not getting sued is priority one on a daily basis lol. Don't let my paranoia discourage you!
 
Well, with my primary concern being children, I was going to focus first on toxic or dangerous plants. That is what I am photographing now.
 
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