Good deal, or not?

I'm with Ed on this one.  I learned what he is saying the hard way.  I tried flashes and cheap set ups for a while.  I messed up some sessions because I didn't have modeling lights or good enough equipment.  All in all, my current $1200 setup cost me a lot more than that because I spent hundreds on other stuff in the early stages of my studio's startup.  One thing to remember with most studio equipment, spend as much as you can possibly afford because it has to last a long time and do a great and consistent job.  If you scrimp on your pennies on the wrong stuff, you will spend more in the long run with replacements and repairs and gadgets to try and make them do what you want.  If you are too strapped for cash at the moment, it may be a great time to learn how to do some very professional natural light location photography.  A lot of photographers are running lucrative businesses doing this.

Susie mentioned that my ISO is usually high and she is partially correct.  I have no reservations about setting my ISO to 400, 800, and even sometimes 1600 when it's necessary to get the photo; however I am usually using these higher settings when my main light source is natural or ambient.  I have 2-320WS strobes and one 160WS strobe that provide plenty of light for me on most of my studio settings.  I try to use 100 to 200 ISO settings for these instances.

I also love to do children's photography and I agree that there are some unique challenges that you face, especially with them moving around a lot.  This tends to make us want a small aperture for DOF and a fast shutter speed to keep them from being blurry.  However, I have had good success working with f/5.6 because of the added DOF you get from the smaller image plane with most DSLR's.  I use a mix of camera on tripod and hand-holding depending a lot on how the child is responding to me, but I certainly prefer the tripod and remote when the kids will allow me.

As another reference for lights, look into Paul C. Buff's Alien Bees.  I have been very pleased with mine so far and I have no doubt they will be completely sufficient until I can upgrade to a high end set of lights that will likely last the remainder of my photography career.

Travis

Hold your 300 until your tax return, add em' together, that's more for your next piece of equipment.

I don't have a gray card right now (the dog ate the last one...) It's on my list for the next time I go into the city.

Hahhahaa...I think I can find one of those...

Aha!!! I'll try that. My mind was stuck on fluorescents and forgot about the daylight balanced part! Duh!!!! 

Images need to be "Developed" DON'T be afraid of using camera raw in this case, to develop your image.
I'm really tired of people not wanting to use photoshop or have a "That's Photoshopped" Attitude.

Trust me, they did the same in the darkroom, though the effort was much more of a challenge

This is not a cut up, this message is a spurring, C'mon!!! :=)

W/B?
How about knowing when to set the kelvin to 3200, 5500, 6500, 7800 then there will be no worries about that Blah Auto W/B. :=)

What's that gravy he called in the darkroom? How to make better B/Ws.

Hmm, that's easy in photoshop, it doesn't smell, you won't get splashed or dirty and, light won't kill the images.
Sit back, kick your feet up and play with a keyboard and mouse, sip on a cup of Tim's coffee, or Starbucks and edit images. What a life.