i'm pretty sure i've mentionned the excellent strobist here before. it's a site all about using flash more effictively, and the guy that runs it is holding a competition of sorts. the topic of the first round is "headshot" which you can also see entered on flickr.
Nathan Andrews turndown Cheltenham Pittville
today (again) the light was pretty terrible, but i was quite pleased with how the flash set up worked on this one.