Lighting position

I've been a bit uninspired with my photography lately. Not working so hard along project lines, just not shooting as much. In about a month I'm going to Savannah for a week long workshop that I'm really looking forward to. I'm hopeful that will launch me off in some new directions. At the same time, Strobist has recently started the Lighting102 class & shoot-along series so I've decided to work through some of those exercises too, just to get my visual muscles flexing and hopefully learn some more lighting techniques. I'm about a month behind on the lesson plan so I'll be trying to catch up over the next few weeks. The series of portraits above of my good friend, Stan, are really simple. All shot on manual exposure, with the flash power output on manual as well. The only thing that varies from frame to frame is the light location. The subject <-> light distance doesn't change (much), the camera settings or position is fixed too. Yet just by moving the light around I can dramatically change the look and feel of the shadows and the overall shot. I'm not doing anything particularly interesting here, but it still demonstrates a large amount more control and opportunity than if the flash was on-camera. Canon 1DII, 50mm 1.4. Nikon SB-28 off-camera