@redoverblue
Nice stuff – I think I will go raid michaels
I liked your sandy one and the last one with the transition best
I have been taking pictures (that makes me a photographer ?) for a long time, but haven't got particularly serious about miniature photography yet
The #1 piece of advice I have is – don't buy a new camera. If you want to spend money, upgrade your cell phone. Cell phone cameras are now really good, and because of increased depth of field, can take good pictures more easily than a more complex setup.
Focus on lighting. You should be able to use lights that you have for miniature painting – spend money upgrading your painting lights first and re-use for miniature photography. You can move your painting lights around, take more pictures and figure out a light combination that works well for you
You have a slight issue with colour (white) balance. With auto white balance the camera averages the colour it sees and makes a guess. So a strongly coloured background or base or something can throw off the camera. I sometimes have to set the camera to manual white balance. Use the setting your lights are balanced to – daylight for flash, tungsten for old-fashioned light bulbs and the bulb colour temperature for any other bulbs you buy (cool white for instance). Don't forget to set the camera back to auto after :)
Good luck
John