I also enjoy macro photography
Testing the deformer tool in c4d and this one took 500mb of Vram
the second one rendered for about 1 minute

edit: still rendering, I've learned that textures affect every aspect of feeling real, every texture affects the global parameters, and when you hit the right combination it just pops out, you can use any texture, but I think you really have to use a lot of lifelike textures, or just pick textures until you hit the right one - like everybody does
I couldn't beleive what kind of textures I got away with, random textures I had lying around.. incredible I never managed to get something that easy in anything
And this was a straight dump from octane, no photoshopping except one crop
All set on diffuse materials some with built in sky environment