Jim, my first foray into macro was participation in a workshop where the advice of the instructor was to buy a set of filters - she recommended the Polaroid ones at under £15. I have since learned that this coupled with what Brian says in post #26 is spot on. Getting familiar with Exposure, Aperture, DoF (keeping the plane of the sensor parallel to the object being photographed or at an angle to create an artistic out of focus effect), experimenting with ISO and shutter speed are all essential steps as you explore the genre. Once you have mastered these, then is the time to invest in a macro lens. I have the same one as Brian and love it. They're not cheap but can be used for other purposes - portraiture being a good example.