>>4461548 (OP)
A camera and a place. That's fucking it.
A wider lens, like 28mm or 35mm, would probably help a lot, 50mm would do. Longer would take more work.
My recommendation:
Pentax K-5 II or K-5 IIs: $280
Pentax 18-135mm: $115
Pentax 35mm Limited: $170
Total: <$600 after taxes
The camera doesn't matter much, but Pentax has some advantages. The K-5 is nice because it gives you a lot of things you found on higher end cameras, but on what was a cheaper camera. A similarly performing camera you find from Nikon or Canon is going to have less advanced features, or be more expensive. Like a Canon at this price will be a Rebel T6 which only has one command dial, no top LCD, a worse and dimmer viewfinder, and actually a worse sensor. The Pentax also has IBIS and weather sealing. Nice.
The 18-135mm is just a wide-zoom-range kit zoom. Nothing special, but performs well enough, is cheap, and is very versatile.
The 35mm f/2.8 Limited -- this is the special lens and will be your "secret sauce" and what will blow Canon or Nikon out of the water. Despite being available for cheap (in the grand scheme of things, $170 is cheap for a lens), you get a quite sharp lens with macro capability. 35mm focal length is versatile. And its rendering is just absolutely lovely -- has decent-to-good bokeh (the bokeh quality is very good, but noticeably hexagonal, so drops a few points) but the focus fall off is very pleasant, rendering a sense of depth that's rare in EF and later Nikon F lenses. The build quality is top notch.
The downsides of this setup?
Mainly, the autofocus will suck, so autistic people will bitch at you and call you slurs for having this camera. But realistically, you're wanting to take pictures of sticks and rocks, right? The autofocus is good enough for most purposes, just don't expect to take many good pictures of football games and of birds in flight. Back of people's heads, sticks and rocks, portraits of your mom (ie. street, landscape, portraiture) it's just fine.
