Ask HN: How to start hacking photonics?

Hey, I've bought a bunch of books on photonics and what not, kinda went through them but my hands are itching to start hacking on something. I'm not sure what I'm really looking for, I guess a photonics experiment kit? When I googled around, I did find some things but the cheaper ones were of questionable utility and the more expensive ones were pretty expensive (~$10K+) and only of marginally less questionable utility. I realize that photonics isn't programming, however I'm wondering if there's something like this.