Submit a Caption for Snapshot Photos!

The following piece was written by OAS Communications Coordinator Ryan Bower for the Snapshot Wisconsin newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit this link.

Jessica Knackert, one of the newest Snapshot team members, recently added a new discussion called “Funny Photo Captions” to the Zooniverse Talk Board. This discussion contains funny trail camera photos for volunteers to add their own captions. Take a look as Zooniverse volunteers have already contributed several entertaining captions.

For those who don’t know, Zooniverse is a platform that is used by citizen science projects to expand their reach to a wider community of volunteers. Snapshot Wisconsin uses Zooniverse to draw a consensus classification about trail camera photos, while also involving people from all over the world.

Zooniverse’s Talk Board feature allows volunteers to share photos, get second opinions and meet fellow volunteers. The talk board is also one of the easiest ways for volunteers to connect with the larger volunteer community.

Within the new talk board, volunteers can add photos to four categories that the Snapshot program frequently sees: Animal Selfies, Comical Situations, Interactions and Animal Yoga.

Knackert is excited to provide another space for volunteers to connect.

“Our volunteers were already captioning photos themselves, but they didn’t have a central place for it. I think this board is a great place for volunteers to come and enjoy the humor of their fellow volunteers,” said Knackert.

Volunteers were eager to use this new talk board adding captions to photos within its first day of being live.

To keep the fun going, Knackert has added a new batch of photos for people to caption. Plus, volunteers can make their own posts on the talk board with photos they find. There is plenty of fun to be had.

Captions can be funny, silly or clever. However, the team asks that all photos adhere to community standards. Moderators and staff will remove posts that contain spam or language that violates these standards. To meet standards, all posts must be appropriate for all ages and be respectful of the other volunteers who use the talk board. Also, please do not expose personal information of other users, including names or addresses, without their permission.

Now, let’s get to the fun part – seeing some of the captions that volunteers have already posted. Please note that we couldn’t include captions in their entirety here; visit the talk board to read the full caption. The team appreciates submitted captions and the smiles they brought.

Animal Selfies

The team knew they wanted to include Animal Selfies as one of the categories of funny photos. Snapshot trail cameras are designed to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible, but animals inevitably get curious. That curiosity leads them to approach the camera and accidentally take a selfie. The team has used several of these selfies in the program newsletter over the years, but new ones come in regularly.

The photo above was posted in the Animal Selfies sub-thread on Zooniverse, and the team chose three captions that made them laugh. We hope you enjoy these volunteer-made captions and feel inspired to add your own to the Animal Selfie post on the talk board.

Caption from Goldfinch33:
“So…you’ve seen this property, we’ve flown around it, you’re happy with the tree heights…can we close this deal?
~said The Bluebird of Avian Real Estate

Caption from bzeise:
I’m blue, da ba dee da ba di WHOAH! What was that?

Caption from sbreich:
Are you looking at me? ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME??

Comical Situations

The second category within the funny photos talk board covers the silly activities we see animals doing in photos. Whether it is slipping on ice or hanging upside down from a branch, these photos capture some entertaining moments that make us laugh. The “levitating” animal photos from the previous article also belong in this category.

The photo of a raccoon barely clinging to a tree (above) was added to the Comical Situations sub-thread and generated some entertaining captions. Here are a few captions submitted by volunteers. If you can think of more captions, don’t forget to add them!

Caption from momsabina:
But he double-dared me….

Caption from charleysangel:
Help! Now what?

Caption from AndyC3339:
Alex Honnold, [a famous rock climber,] made it look so easy!

Interactions

If you look at which photos are shared the most on Zooniverse’s Talk Board, fun interactions are always high on the list. Interactions can be between two members of the same species, or they can be interactions between different species. In fact, these photos are so commonly shared that there is a searchable tag (multi_species) that volunteers can use to see photos of multi-species interactions.

The photo of a mother black bear and her cub, playing in the grass was added to the Interactions sub-threaad. Of the three captions, which one is your favorite?

Caption from Megeth:
When I say “roll over” you need to roll. Ready? Roll!

Caption from Swamp-eye:
Mama down, Papa help me up

Caption from charleysangel:
How many paws am I holding up? Wrong

Yoga Poses

The last category of funny Snapshot photos is Yoga Poses. Cat Pose, Downward Dog Pose, Crow Pose, Cobra Pose and Camel Pose are all named after animals, so it shouldn’t be surprising that we captured some animals stretching in yoga poses.

This type of photo was already covered a year and a half ago on Zooniverse, but there wasn’t an opportunity to caption these photos. The team wanted to bring these photos back for captioning fun. Don’t forget to add your own captions to the Yoga Pose post on the Zooniverse Talk Board.

Caption from Megeth:
“You put your right leg out and you shake it all about”

Caption from bzeise:
Am I doing this planking thing right?

Caption from Goldfinch33:
What?! I do this every morning when I wake up. My mentor told me “stretching exercises every morning without fail keeps joints supple.” Do I move like I’m 9?

Knackert’s Hope For The Talk Board

Knackert thanks everyone who added a caption already and encourages all Snapshot volunteers to join in the fun.

“My hope for this caption board is that it draws in a part of our volunteer community that has never checked out or even knows about Zooniverse. A lot of our volunteers host cameras and only ever classify their own photos. They only get to see the cool photos that they find. I’d love to see those existing volunteers head over to Zooniverse and join in on the conversations happening there.”

If you want to add captions to any of the photos, head over to the Zooniverse Talk Boards and check them out here.