Practicing the LA Headshot Technique

I'm patently waiting for the winter to be over, so I can take pictures outside without it being -30 degrees celsius. I have been reading beginner and intermediate tutorials on Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and Flash techniques. I recently purchased a light stand, shoot through umbrella with a speedlite mount and a 5-n-1 reflector to help get the shots i'm looking for complete.

I've got a pretty good feel now on setting my camera to manual mode and knowing what I need to do to get a properly exposed photo but certain situations still get the best of me. I'm alot more comfortable though and am now trying to master the flash power in manual mode seing i'm firing my flash with a wireless Yonguno RF-602 trigger.

Things are looking good and pictures are improving alot, looking forward to nice sunsets, wildlife, and outdoor landscape photos this summer.