013: Hyacinth Roots

Another snowy-day image from indoors - this time a manual macro shot.
The hyacinth stems themselves are only just starting to appear, but the roots are nice and long. They resemble noodles from a distance, but close up they posess finely a wrinkled texture rather like that of an elephant's trunk. Between my fingers, they have a very similar texture to beansprouts -but I hesitiate to try eating one for fear of any potential toxicity.
All the detail in the photo looks ever so slightly distorted and soft as it's seen through the glass of the bulb jar, but is still quite sharp. The bubbles are not set in the glass, but ones clinging to the inside of the jar.
Equipment used: K10D, Cosina 50mm f/1.8 (M42), 16mm extension ring, M42-PK converter, Canon Speedlite 300TL.
I placed the jar standing on a black background and the flash firing upward and forward into a white reflector above. I tried a couple of shots at f/5.6 and the flash on 'M Lo' but the focus was difficult to get accurate, so I tried f/16 and 'M Hi' flash power. This gave more detail and a deeper field of focus, but a little less contrast, so I increased the contrast a little bit in postprocessing. and here you have it.