Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest for January 2011 is Macro in a Mason Jar. David Perry has a great tutorial and he is also the judge for the contest. I had so much fun with this idea! I love old Mason jars and have a small collection inherited from my grandmother. I keep them in my studio, full of different odds and ends; silk thread, beads, buttons...
... and agates.
One of our favorite pastimes as a family is to go to the beach and walk. We collect rocks. The most prized rocks we hunt for are agates - actually we become obsessed. I hoard my precious gems in an old slightly green Mason jar.
I set up my new lamp that has wonderful natural light (a UV lamp is mandatory in the Pacific Northwest), several of my favorite Mason Jars, and experimented with different treasures. I found the taller - bigger jars worked better. There is a feeling of depth - of actually being in the jar. The light worked great. This was lucky since it was a dark grey day outside. I leaned a piece of pretty blue card stock paper behind the jars - this made the background of the out-of-jar pictures solid. After many shots I came down to two favorites.
One favorite is of a glass heart I received one Valentines day. I set it on some dried lavender. Both of my boys chose this photo as their favorite. What I like about this photo is how the colors work together.
My next favorite is of the agates. This is my husband's favorite shot.
In both of these photographs I love being able to see the bubbles in the old glass and the signature "Ball" and "Perfect Mason" words on the jars. I can't decide.... UGH! Okay, I'm going with the agates.
