Thanks Paul. That is interesting. I have, at least for now, gone in the opposite direction. I used to use a tripod almost all the time, but now I work hand-held most of the time. There's a trade-off which you'll be well aware of between losing shots because of the time needed to set up the tripod versus shots lost when working hand-held from poor focus/subject not well framed (or not even fully in the frame). I have been experimenting with using a steadying stick - much quicker to set up than a tripod and quite flexible in use. (Well, the stick doesn't flex, but it is very flexible in terms of quickly changing the position/distance/angle of view. It's a bit of a drag carrying it around though - well, "them" actually, of different lengths. I've only used them in our garden so far.)
These days I've been using flash almost exclusively (for insects and spiders - not for flowers) whereas several years ago I used natural light almost all the time. I need to get to a better balance with that too, which is what made this shot of yours so interesting for me.
