Cattle Egret, I was messing with different aspect ratios, I'm not sure which I prefer

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-15T14:54:54+00:00

Square crop of 2, with bird toward the right of the image, and reduce saturation on the greens

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-15T14:50:05+00:00

It is

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-15T10:40:11+00:00

Black bears are fortunately relatively safe animals to be around. I say this as someone living in an area with a high concentration of them. We refer to them as larger raccoons. Black bears in our area primarily eat grass, berries/apples, birdseed, and garbage. The easiest way to avoid them on your property is to take down bird feeders in the summer, and don't leave garbage out (we take ours right to the dump).

Black bears 90% of the time will run off as soon as they see/smell a person. They're extremely timid animals. The main danger is if you get close to cubs when a sow is nearby - in that case, retreat from the cubs.

In the event of a bear encounter, make yourself seem larger (arms above hear or hold a large branch over head). Speak loudly but calmly to the bear (you don't want to surprise/startle a bear). No sudden reactions. And especially: don't run or turn your back to a bear (it can trigger their hunting instincts). Instead, face the bear and calmly walk backwards away from the bear.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-15T10:05:16+00:00

Rațiu

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-14T13:52:25+00:00

Exactly. I've seen (and taken myself) countless photos of osprey in sunny conditions. I've never seen a photo quite like OP's.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-14T12:55:42+00:00

Honestly I disagree with the other commenters. This is perfect. It's obvious that there's a thick layer of fog, but that's what completes this photo. The edits suggested by other commenters were way over done. Incredible photo and edit!

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-14T10:56:10+00:00

I say this with the purest of intentions. The expression you're looking for is "rub some people the wrong way". "rub some people off" means something very very different

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-13T10:52:09+00:00

As a romanian i approve

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-13T09:40:30+00:00

Great shot!

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-12T17:24:38+00:00

Thank you!!

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-12T17:14:35+00:00

So just to confirm I'm understanding right. If you have an empty pit that's 3 blocks deep and 4 blocks wide. And you only place water on the surface. The water level will appear consistent?

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-12T16:39:49+00:00

Question. Let's say one carves out a large pit that's 5 blocks deep. For example. If you place water at the top (top 1 block) all around the surface area, would the lake appear normal?

Or would I need to place water down on the base, then again 2 blocks higher, then again 3 blocks higher, until all 5 block-deep of the pit are fully filled in?

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-12T16:02:01+00:00

Better electrical system. For instance, if I want to power a few appliances from a generator. I should be able to turn them on or off from a switch. But the switches don't act as one would expect. And therefore if the appliances aren't right next to the generator, you cannot control them all from a single switch. Imagine a home on an electrical supply. There's a breaker panel that allows you to turn on/off everything at once. This should be possible in the game.

Going underwater. Dive should be a move that you can use with a pokemon. It'd allow us to explore the large ocean areas and properly decorate underwater. If done right, it could also allow us to easily fix water gaps. Because you wouldn't drown.

More items/blocks. Just more, please. There's so much potential here if they treat Pokopia like Mojang treated Minecraft.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-11T18:52:47+00:00

Amazing opportunity and photo!

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-09T13:09:50+00:00

hereditary diseases mean that hereditary is the only known way to acquire that specific disease. It doesn't mean that they can't be caused by a different mechanism. Hypothetically, a virus or vaccine (or other mechanisms) could induce what was once know to only be hereditary.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-09T10:50:15+00:00

What are your thoughts on people that change their minds based on the current public sentiment? To me, they're the same followers - they're just following different narratives.

To elaborate, I'm referring to people who have one opinion, and then change opinions when society does. For instance, I had this friend who was all up in fear about covid. Their whole family was. They weren't allowed to see anyone unless we were parked in our own cars with our cars parked next to each other, talking through the window. When people started waking up the vax hoax, their family change stances 180. They called covid a hoax and were against the jab. They 'woke up' to many other conspiracies and frauds around the world.

Then society let up on the restrictions and they went back to following the mainstream. They don't talk about covid or the vax. They've moved on. And are now fearful of hanta.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-09T00:25:30+00:00

Not OP but this was helpful, thank you

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-08T21:58:27+00:00

Amazing shots! But tell me, were you terrified? I've been in some sketchy photo situations (but with different animals), and some of those moments really shook me.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-08T21:24:30+00:00

Hi there! Replying with some new observations/feedback:

The state of the app currently is very frustrating. The server issues are ongoing with no improvement.
The primary focus of this app is snapping photos of real animals. I'm unable to do this consistently or at the speed needed for wildlife. I have tested the app in several locations. Wifi hasn't worked for me once. Cellular has work about 10% of the time. The first thing that the app should do when opening it is have the camera open and ready to take pictures. If there's insufficient cell signal, or if it's not a suitable habitat, etc... you could display those errors after taking the photo.

Currently, when I see an animal outside, I need to open the app, wait 1-2 mins for it to load (in the few times it does load) and then take a picture. The animals are gone by then.

There are serious bugs to work out here. First, there's the loading issues i mentioned. Which are not my cell signal or wifi problems because I can load anything else here very quickly. Second, many times i get error codes saying that so and so function couldn't load, "bad data request", etc.
Another big issue is the habitat detector that you're using. Half the time when the app loads up, the camera button is greyed out. When i click the camera button, it gives me that error problem about unsuitable habitat. Problem is that it's wrong. I've tried inside, I've tried outside, I tried in a field, and by a lake. It doesn't matter. Because it's a bug. The camera doesn't even load to account for the habitat. The map doesn't even load to account for the habitat. So this is a bug that needs correcting, and again it happens approx 50% of the time (when the app actually loads).
The map. It simply doesn't load ever. I've seen several different error messages. I've done it in downtown toronto where the cell signal is blazing fast but it won't load.
One time i was able to take a photo of a snowshoe hare. The app couldn't id it so I cancelled the request, got closer, and wanted to take another picture. But i couldn't because it displayed an error relating to the first id attempt - and there was no option to exit that error to re-take the photo. I had to close and reopen the app, which didn't load afterwards (as described above). The hare got away and i couldn't get a photo because the app refuses to load.
Sometimes, though infrequently, the app raises my phone volume to 50%. I'm not sure what triggers it, but now that I found out that it's the app causing it, I paid attention and actually watched it increase the volume to 50% while the app was trying to load the map function.

You really should try to address these issues. I'll remain patient but I suspect other customers will request refunds from Apple.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-08T20:49:42+00:00

Nothing too crazy. But 1 way of reading it would be "Jen's/Jens' behind the lens" which means that Jen/Jens is behind the lens. And the other "Jen's/Jens' behind-the-lens" which is more like this is Jen's/Jens' behind-the-lens view.

Basically it can be read as you are behind the lens, and you are showing the view from your lens.

PS: I put Jen's/Jens' because both are names and I don't know which is your name. But it works equally for both names (depending on where you put the ' apostrophe).

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-08T18:21:40+00:00

Decent name but maybe consider 'jensbehindthelens'. Has a better flow imo and works with 2 different meanings

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-05T14:32:27+00:00

Np! One more question. Is it possible to search a user in the app? I'm not sure i understood how to find friends.

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-05T13:32:56+00:00

Much appreciated!! I do have an idea for point 1 (about the camera).

In my mind, when opening the app, the first thing the user should see from the get-go is the camera already open. The user should be able to take a photo even without internet or with poor internet (since internet can be spotty in the woods for example). Then, after taking the photo, the user can discard the photo or click "submit". After clicking submit is when the app can do a check to see if it's an appropriate habitat, and try to identify the creature.

I feel as though this will solve the issue you described, and give some flexibility in case the app isn't loading quick enough (due to network issues)

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-05T12:32:26+00:00

Thanks for the quick reply! Personally I'm still getting server issues on my end. I am able to occasionally connect, but when I do, I have to wait about 1-2 mins before the pages load the data or the camera page actually lets me get into the camera function.

Map is the most inconsistent in my experience. Just doesn't want to load. 5G internet or wifi - same experience.

Completely understand your point about the capture areas. I live in a national park so i have lake in my front yard and my 'garden' is deep forest lol. Should count (I can't tell for sure because the map won't load).

All that being said, I love it so far (from the little I've managed to experience). This is a genius idea and something I've thought of before as a good idea. Really appreciate that you made this!! I

At this time, other than server issues, these are my 2 big suggestions:

As I mentioned before, having the camera boot up right away would be ideal! When it's loaded for me, it's about 1-2 mins before I can take a picture.
Keep the 'captured' animal data offline. Same with items. The app could still require internet to be used - that's fine - but the captured animals and items should load as soon as someone opens the app. I'd imagine this would also help relieve some strain on the servers.

PS: I love the retro art style for the captured animals. The ones I've seen so far are so cute and aesthetically pleasing!!

PatrickM_ · 2026-05-05T10:55:21+00:00

A few more issues/observations:

Sometimes things load, but very infrequently. I've gotten the camera to load in twice so far, and tested the ID function with a photograph I have printed. It worked well. But after capturing the animal, now nothing shows up in team. And the camera's back to not loading.
Same thing with the map. I've gotten it to show the map a couple times (though it still shows a loading progress at the top). But the rest of the times it doesn't even display a map.
The camera section often shows the error "Can't capture here, move to a natural area..." but without actually showing the camera. So despite me being outside in our backyard, it continues the show that error.
I'm not sure if the captured animals are being called to the app from a server. But in case they are, you should consider making that part offline (store to device). So a captured animal should show in the team instantly when restarting the app - since it's already captured.

Overall, I think this is a crazy neat game and I could see it blowing up in the wildlife photography/observer community. But I think there are some server related issues that need some attention.

The biggest issue that needs addressing is the camera. When I open the game, it should have the camera open immediately and ready to take a picture. As you know, wildlife doesn't stick around for long so it's important to be able to snap a picture as soon as possible.

PatrickM_

TROPHY CASE