Ideally this photogroup is for photos taken with macro equipment -- either a P&S in macro mode or a DSLR rig with a macro lens -- but anything that is close to 1:1 is ok by me.
It is so easy to find subjects for macro photos that the advice to practice makes a lot of sense. It also depends on what sort of macro photogrpahy you want to do. There is a fair amount of skill involved in setting up the perfect macro scale shot to preserve as much detail as possible. There are people who specialize in this sort of scientific macro photography, where the photo is really a informational artefact. This is the sort of macro work that wants good lenses (perhaps one with tilt/shift), an articulated tripod and fancy light boxes and/or multiple flashes.
But there is a fair amount of artistic composition that can be fun at the macro level with the most modest equipment. This is almost portraiture or still-life photography, just at a smaller scale. In this case it helps to have a good source of light, a table-top tripod and a camera with very good auto-focus or manual focus functionality. The challenge is often getting the DOF right for the shot, since the focus plane tends to be very short, even when stopped down a bit.
Since the on-camera flash is much too harsh and probably causes the lens to cast a shadow across the subject area, one the first things many people do is build or buy themselves a lightbox. There are plenty of examples lightbox designs you can build that can be found on the internet.
And not all macro is the same. If you are crazy for pictures of bugs and little creatures, most macro modes want you to be centimetres from the subject, which may be a little too close for comfort -- for both you and the bug! This is where a D/SLR really shines, since most of the good macro lenses (and here Nikon sets the standard by which all macro glass is compared) are actually teles, allowing you to stand well away from your subject while still capturing a 1:1 macro frame.
But there is plenty that can be done with even the most modest equipment, so get in there close and get crazy for the details! Everything looks different close up.
A word to the wise: chasing clearer and clearer images with finer and finer detail is a bit of a disease. You may find yourself lusting after obscure Japanese and German lenses with more knobs and switches than a Formula 1 car. Imagine when I found out that I could easily do photomicrography with my camera.
For fun, check out Nikon's photomicrography site: http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/
