Off-camera flash portrait

I recently purchased an off-camera flash (Metz 44-AF, to be more precise). I have never been an avid flash user, since I don't like the light that it produced, nor have I used my camera flash often, because of the harshness of the ball of light that comes bursting out of it.

But having said that, I am in love with this off-camera flash. It creates wonderful, studio-like light, that with a simple light reflector can mimic real studio light. I did a few test images, one of them follows after this text, in which I tried to use the flash as effectively as I could. I do have a lot of playing around and testing in front of me, but nevertheless I'm keen on where this is going.