Macro Studio

I have interest in macro photography.
I had looked at some of the macro studios that are available in the camera stores. The cheap ones running about 6000円. Not really what I wanted to spend on something I might only rarely use.
After a bit of stumbling around various lighting sites. I found an interesting tutorial on making one of these macro studios at Strobist: DIY Macro studio.
That article says you can make it for about $10 (or less).
I re-used some materials and made mine for free.

To make it, I used exactly what you see, and old paper box that originally had recycled A4 paper, some tracing paper and tape.

The orange was free too, it sits on some A4 sized paper.

Lit by the sun coming from the right side, the tracing paper reflects and diffuses the light, throwing a nice soft even light over the subject and almost entirely eliminating shadows.

It's a mikan!

I also found this wonderful maple leaf on the street, after the second time passing it I thought I would take a few shots as it was really quite a beautiful leaf.

Here is the same leaf shot on top of the macro studio at the same angle, without the softening effect of the paper, receiving direct light from the sun.