Well, I finally had enough saved up, so I made the plunge and got the Canon 430EXII flash for my camera. Wow…what a difference. I have SO much to learn, but so far, it’s made a world of difference. Some of my resources are:
Digital Photography School
Strobist Blog
And my favorite: Planet Neil Flash Techniques

Here are a few samples of my experiments with bouncing the flash. Quincy makes a good test subject…

This is using the flash unit, straight on with no diffuser. Much better than on-camera flash, but pretty harsh and unflattering still.

Here, I bounced the light from the flash off the wall to my right.

Here, I bounced it off the ceiling.

And now, I bounced the light at an angle on the wall and ceiling behind me. Nice and even light. Keep in mind this was at night, and the only light in a big living room was a small table lamp.

This is my favorite….so cute!