The humble onion is a real thing of beauty when you look past its pungency and tear-inducing tendencies. Not only do they taste delicious (especially when cooked slowly,) but they show off a great variety of the smoothest, most curvaceous forms in your fridge - or garden. Then there are the layers...
Anyway, about the photo. I attempted this shot initially with my Tamron 70-300 lens, set to 240mm in macro focus. I wanted a flash from the left, and the 70-300 can't focus at less than about a metre - so I had to hold the flash in my hand and set it off manually in a long exposure (1/4 sec. with a two-second timer.) The results looked OK on the camera's screen, but when uploaded they exhibited signs of the dreaded wobble-blur. Clearly rubbish.
So I changed back to the lens I used yesterday (50mm M42 & extension ring) and was able to get practically the same shot, but sharper and wobble-free. It's much easier to adjust the framing close up. Also, because the lens was right up close I could mount the flash back on the hotshoe - all it needed was a bit of aluminium foil taped to the top and folded over to get the same flash angle.
f/5.6, 1/180 sec. The background is a black box folder, that when painted with flash light resembles a one of those blobby grey portrait backcloths. So I suppose that makes it a portrait of an onion.
Elephant garlic flowers, cut a few weeks ago, but still starting to bloom in a small vase of water. The uncut heads in the garden are at about the same stage now.
