Just like most of the pictures I post on my blog, there’s a wonderful story that goes with each one. The story with this picture is that I almost didn’t get to take it. If you’ve read enough of my posts, you know I love macros (close-up) especially on flowers.

Well, these are the flowers of spring onion and I shot it about a month ago when I went to my grandma’s village for a feast. After positioning the camera and adjusting the zoom, as I was about to press the shutter button, an old lady stood not far from me yammered something in the village dialect. I stared at her, confused, “Huh?” I said and she repeat what she said in her dialect. How in the world could my aunt or anyone understand what in the world the people in this village are saying? I have no idea but it’s times like this I wish I had watched more of those Chinese movies with my mom where the characters are speaking in different dialects.

“Aunt!” I shouted for assistance but my aunt was nowhere in the vicinity. Excellent, no one can translate for me. “I’m only taking a picture,” I spoke slowly to the old lady but she couldn’t understand me. So I ignored her for a minute to once again positioned my camera and snapped the shot.

When I made it to the old lady, I noticed she was missing her upper and lower teeth. No wonder I couldn’t understand her. It was then she pointed at the flower and spoke the words again and this time, I managed to catch one familiar word, “poison.” Yikes, thank goodness I’m not a fan of spring onions.

Technical Details

Sony NEX-5T v. 1.00 (f/4.5, 27 mm, ISO-400, 1/160 sec)