Photographers can spend a great deal of money on equipment, especially if they want to shoot indoors, studio-style. This image is one of my most successful. It has won me several awards and has been accepted into juried exhibitions. Recently it was one of only seven images from Surrey accepted into the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain’s annual projected digital image exhibition. Judges often comment favourably on the fine control of lighting in this photograph. Yet this shot was taken in natural daylight in front of a black lever arch file with a piece of white paper as a reflector. I used my canon 400D and its kit lens, now considered by most to be outdated and barely adequate equipment. The tripod is more than fifty years old and was passed on to me by my father. A picture of my totally Heath Robinson setup (and very messy kitchen) is below. Who needs a posh studio? There is pleasure in making do.
Focused Moments 
Looks like my set ups 🙂 Great post Rachael, it just proves it is not so much the equipment but the photographer that makes the shot!
I should take shots of some of my set ups, especially the droplets, it would make you laugh!
Thanks, Karen. Improvising is definitely part of the fun!
Could not agree more!
The tulip’s texture is incredible on this shot. Thank you for the inspiration for learning more about macro shooting.
Thank you very much for this lovely comment, Tricia. I hope you have lots of fun with it!
Thanks for sharing the inner workings of your fancy schmancy studio! I so agree with Karen. Great photographs are made by great photographers, not necessarily great equipment. Although the latest gear and a real studio would certainly be nice, your beautiful tulip shot illustrates that it’s the photographer’s eye, skill and vision that count the most.
Thanks! There are some types of shot that you just can’t do really well without expensive equipment; for example, those amazing water drop shots with frozen ‘crowns’ one sees on Flickr. But I am happy to leave those to the specialists.
How Gorgeous! i can believe that you’ve won numerous awards with this..it’s just amazing!
Thank you! What a lovely comment.