I feel I have pretty much come to a sticking point with macro photography and would like some advice on how I can improve or develop ?
Is that SB7000 a typo for SB700? (I'm not a Nikon person, and am ignorant about Nikon gear). Anyway, I think you have all you need for now, with a macro lens and, should you choose to use it, flash.
If you do decide to use flash you should think about getting a diffuser. You can buy them but lots of people build their own, for next to nothing in cost. Have a look at the
Show us your macro rig thread for some ideas. There are some complicated rigs there, but also some simple ones; and simple can be very effective.
You may not be seeing much by way of insects, spiders, snails etc at the moment because there may not be many around at the moment where you are. There haven't been many here yet. So keep looking.
Daffodils (well, most daffodils) are quite large. You might want to start looking on a smaller scale. You can photograph scenes down to an inch across with your gear, so crawling around the garden (or elsewhere) is not such a silly idea. It's what I do too (seriously - I always wear gardeners' kneepads when out photographing, in our garden or at nature reserves). You need to slow right down, relax, and let your eyes wander around, very, very slowly. I have before now spent a couple of hours working on one little (1-2m) stretch of garden border or hedgerow.
And don't just depend on your eyes. Remember that the camera sees things differently. Point the camera around and take pictures, and see what you have got, what the camera is seeing, then and there, so when something interesting and unexpected turns up you can pursue it. And try different apertures for scenes, from large to small and in between, because that can have a huge impact on the look of what the camera sees. You may get some nice surprises.
And remember that things can look very different indeed in different light - I find low late afternoon sun particularly interesting in the effects it can produce. Shoot into the light, shoot subjects that are strongly illuminated in shafts of light coming through foliage, take lots of shots of subjects that are being illuminated in continually changing patterns by light coming through moving foliage. Light - it makes and breaks photos; experiment with it, give it a chance to show you what it can do for you, for your photos.
Look, words can only get us so far. I'm going to take a risk of highjacking your thread (but you did ask, and I do know what it is like to lose inspiration - I am only fairly recently back after stopping completely for six months last year having lost inspiration, come to a dead end). Here are some examples that appeal to me at least and hopefully might give you something to help you forward a bit.
Grass flowering in the lawn, shot towards the low sun coming through the next door neighbour's hedge.
Daffodil (yes, one of the larger ones), shot in light coming through the foliage of a bush behind it.
The shapes and colours of weeds and even half-dead and decaying things can be picture-worthy.
And nice light can make the difference for insects etc too.
If you can get out early in the morning, the hour or two after dawn can provide lovely light too, and some sights you may not see at other times of day, like snails in motion.
and dew-covered insects
And remember that by varying the framing, in-camera or by cropping later, you can get very different effects, and make sets of pictures of the same subject.
I do use flash some of the time, but all of these used natural light as it happens, which I prefer to use, because I am as much interested in colours, textures, shapes, light and composition as fine detail. But with flash you can reveal more, sharper detail, if that is where your preferences lead you, and deal with lots of scenes which are not practical with natural light, because of combinations of breeze, subject movement, poor light or high magnification.
Now, I don't own a macro lens, and I didn't use a dSLR for any of these. You have a very nice macro lens and a good dSLR. I don't think there is anything here you couldn't do with your kit. And with flash, even more opportunities open up for you. It's all out there. Get out and about, wander around, experiment, practice, vary things, be patient, and be joyful as additional little pieces of the technical jigsaw fall slowly into place and you realise, "Yes, I
can do this stuff".
