Coming Spring 2024
In the meantime, a word from Anne Lewis, MacroBlitz team lead

Hey there, so you are curious about photographing macroinvertebrates for iNaturalist? In the near future there will be a nice set of resources (videos, how-to-guides, examples) but for now, allow me to share my lessons learned.

1. Keep the goal in mind. The goal of MacroBlitz is to upload photos of aquatic* macroinvertebrates to iNaturalist that are identifiable to taxonomic order or in some cases (I'm looking at you Odonata) suborder so others can look at them and say "hey, that's a Mayfly". The photos, therefore, should be clear with as many of the diagnostic characters of the macroinvertebrate in focus as possible. Some of the characters will be easy to capture (abdominal gills), others doable but more challenging (wingpads, tarsal claws), and still others, well, we aren't using a field microscope (mandibles).  The goal is not beautiful photos but identifiable organisms. Take a look at my observations to see what I mean. Not gonna win any awards but they are identifiable (mostly).


2. Your cell phone is fine. But it's better with a lens. MacroBlitz is about making aquatic macroinvertebrate observation accessible to as many people as possible so no specialty camera is required. I use my cell phone for all macro photos because I have it with me and the lat/long is already embedded in the photo information which makes uploading to iNat easier.  Protip: If you are using just a phone, sans lens, stick to the larger (half in/1.26cm) organisms. Don't even try to get the tiny copepod, even in macro mode, because that will just make you sad when the photos don't come out.
   
   If you want to use a lens, and I suggest you do, your options are determined by whatever fits your phone and budget best. I use a Xenvo clip on lens because it's easy to clip on and off my phone, even with a case and shatterproof glass phone cover, but I know folks who get good results with the Easy-Macro lens. If you use another option, feel free to email and let me know. Another protip: If you have a later generation phone you will have to figure out which of the lenses on the back is the macro lens and clip the add-on lens over that.
   
   Speaking phones and magnification: find out if your phone has a macro mode. Some phones have a macro mode as a stand alone setting, some will activate macro mode when you get within 3-5 centimeters (roughly an inch to an inch and a half) of an organism. You know you are in macro-mode when the little flower icon appears on your screen. Even if you use a clip on magnification lens, put your phone in macro mode if you have it. 
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3. As with all photos, light is everything. Unless I want to get into the world of flashes and diffusers (and I don't) I have two choices. The first is take photos in shade or my shadow to avoid washed out highlights/weird partial shadows then use a photo editor later to increase the exposure to highlight details. The second is go MacroBlitzing the two or so hours after sunrise/before sunset when the sun is low enough that the light is automatically diffused and there are few to no shadows cast by your camera. I imagine there are other options but I don't know what they are yet.

*We are focusing on freshwater but you would use many of the same actions to photograph marine macros.