I'd love to be able to afford real equipment, and hopefully someday I will, but for now I'm loving figuring out how to make things myself. It's both the thrill of having a new toy to play with and the thrill of solving the puzzle of how to get it. Does anyone else here do this?
So far I've made a light box and my own versions of Lowell ego lights, which are on my blog here: http://randomgaab.blogspot.com/2015/02/guerilla-studio.html
I also have a big chinese paper lantern to make a China ball, I used it once to light this but I want a higher lumen cool bulb for it as it was so muted. Someone gave me a bunch of little paper lanterns, too, haven't done anything with those yet.