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You are right. We have around $3000 worth of lighting equipment, lens, etc. But we acquired them along the way.

Sponsored content is a good chunk of money (close to 30% every mom) but its nonscalable.

Can you elaborate some more on this? What kind of equipment and resources for learning more about this?

try googling 'photography equipment'

Typically: DSLR, large aperture normal zoom lens, 2 or more external strobes, softboxes, reflectors, tripods, and flash triggers.

Have a look at Strobist which is specifically aimed at flash photography.

Otherwise just look in photo or recipe books, food blogs and shamelessly steal until you get the hang of layout.