An awesome comment on Ask MetaFilter gives some incredibly well-worded advice:

The camera matters not a whit.
The lens matters quite a bit.
The flash matters most in the kit…
…if you expect your models to be well-lit.

Of course, I have a good camera and a pretty good lens, but just the on-camera flash. I’ve had some pretty good luck with it, mostly with improvised solutions (that’s almost identical to mine: similar camera, exact same gold foil) to bounce light off the ceiling / walls. It looks dorky, sure, but it works.

But you should check this out. Not only is this guy an amazing photographer, but he gives a lot of great tutorials. I think my future photo-taking is going to work on finding skillful ways to use the flash for lighting. I’m sure there’s lots more that can be done with high-end flashes and radio slaves, but I want to start by mastering the built-in flash.