Professional photographer David Perry has demonstrated on his blog A Photographer's Garden Blog, how easy it is to take macro photos using a mason jar, and has invited everyone to try it and then leave him a comment about it. Here are my first photos using this technique.
This first image has a narrow depth of field. I think I prefer the second image, with a greater depth of field.
I'm pleased with the results, but I think it would look better if I got all the label glue off the jar. Next time I'll also crop the photos more, like this:
I didn't crop them because there's no way to do so and include the papery skin with the wonderful texture.
This morning, I was going to throw out the old Hyacinth from last year's forcing to use the pot as a cache pot for a new plant, but I noticed that the old bulb had new bulblettes that were starting to sprout. It got me thinking about the resiliency of bulbs, and also made me wonder how the bulb growers coax a plant to produce one large bulb for sale, rather than a bunch of weak little bulbs. Does anyone know? I find it hard to pitch anything that is making such an effort to grow, so I'll be planting these in a container and allowing them to grow at their own pace. They won't bloom this spring, but I'm hoping they'll bulk up some.