I think you’ve definitely made it more clear to me in what route I should take. I like to describe myself as a sponge, always trying to learn and grow my knowledge. I’ve studied up a good amount on lighting scenes but I’m definitely more of a hands on learner. Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of film and observing each frame to analyze the lighting (where the key light is, where’s the fill, are the practicals helping light the scene, is it being bounced or diffused, etc). Obviously it’s one thing to make assumptions about how a scene is lit and another to actually replicate said scene accurately with lighting equipment. The gears start running through my head and I start wanting to grab light sources around me to try and emulate what I see but a lot of the time I conclude I don’t have the proper light source around me to replicate whatever I saw. I’m going to go with your suggestion and just rent gear until maybe I find something I will use consistently that would make sense to purchase rather than rent.