What can I do with it?

Welcome to my photography blog. My name is Petra, I live in San Francisco. I recently became a photography fan (a beginner). This blog will document my journey through the wonders of photography via a beginner's eye. Therefore, if you are a photography pro, you can stop reading.
If you are a newbie, I hope you fill find my articles helpful and inspiring and you will join our friendly photo community soon.

My own journey started this February (2009) when my Nikon D60 arrived. I ordered it after attending one of the "Photo Fridays". As you probably guessed, it was on Friday. It is one of the weekly events I regularly attend with my co-workers from the Gmail engineering team at Google. At that Photo Friday on February 6, I posed (those who do not have camera or forget it at home must pose for others), and shot a couple of photos using Dave's camera. I liked standing behind the camera more than in front of it and after consulting with (then-a-co-worker now-a-strobist-photography-superstar) Dustin Diaz, I "quickly" ordered my first starter SLR camera -- Nikon D60. The "quickly" is in quotes because Adorama took over a week to deliver.

Since then, I shot thousands of photos (most of which are throwaways) and learned a bit about my camera. Until today, I did not have any flash (strobe, speedlight) so I mostly shot with no flash, although I sometimes leeched on my co-workers' flashes when they brought them to Photo Fridays.

I received a big delivery today -- my very first strobe (Nikon SB-600), my very first 6 feet bogen light stand , my very first pair of Cactus 4 pocket wizards, and my very first pair of studio umbrellas. What can I do with it? Well, first, I arranged it all on the floor, put it next to my Nikon D60 camera, my Slik Mini GM tripod, and other accessories, and took a photo using my little compact camera. To read what exactly all these things are, click on the above photo.

And the journey begins.

Disclaimer:
I am a "Rachel Ray" of photography... meaning "not experienced" and "self trained". So take my blog posts with a pinch of salt.