Kevin
Indoor flash is a subject all on its own.
Think of flash as being a compromise light source, especially flash on the camera and pointed straight at the subject.
This tends to give flat lighting will little or no modelling.
Also it tends, as in the shot of the lovely little boy, to give shadows on the wall and as here, hot spots.
In the shots of the very photogenic lady, remember that the subject is far more important than the background and usually should be lit to a higher value than the background.
The key points of interest in the Mum and Cat shots are the lady's face and also the cat's face. Therefore these should have more light than the background.
You have tried here to use bounce flash and that is a good step forward.
Here are a couple of tips that you might consider trying
1. Try to use off-camera flashes.
2. Place large diffusers in front of the flash-heads.
A cheap way to do this is to take a 2 litre icecream carton and cut a rectangular opening in the base for the flash-head to poke through.
Then cover the front of the carton with a few layers of white plastic as from a supermarket shopping bag.
3. Mount the flashguns on stands eg tripods so that they are pointing downwards on the subject(s).
We are used to light falling from above and this looks natural to us.
4. Watch your backgrounds ! ! Busy obtrusive backgrounds will ruin the best of pictures.
The dark wooden panel across the pics is distracting.
Try to find a better spot in the house that offers a plain background.
At worst, move the subjects away from the background so that you can throw it out of focus.
An out of focus blanket is also OK. Something dull that won't throw back hot-spots.
A word about the flashes off camera. You can do this quite inexpensively with small slave units that don't cost an arm and a leg. You can use the pop-up flash if the D30 has one, or the attached flash turned upward.
This will fire the slaves.
Some Canon flashguns have a slave facility, so your Canon flash could act as one of the slaves.
Usually you have one stronger (closer) than the other, to act as your key light.
We only have one sun and are accustomed to having only one key light. 2 or more look artificial.
If you use a pop-up, you could deflect it upward with a small silver reflector if you find it is spoiling the effect.
Again digital is wonderful for giving you a quick preview.
You could have a slave behind the subjects to outline them against the background. Important if you have a dark-haired subject against a dark background.
Go to your library and look at some of the portraits by Ottawa photographer Yousuf KARSH. Ask to see or borrow his book called "Portraits of Greatness."
Very many of his backgrounds are pitch black !
No need for a flash meter.
Do a couple of exposure test shots and you are away.
So easy to do with a digital camera.
Another indoor technique that works well even in the awful weather that you have there, (I lived in the UK for 5 years ) is to use window light and a reflector to lighten the shadow areas ......... and no flash at all.
Have the subject looking out so the light falls nicely on her face. Place yourself near the window against the wall.
In all cases, choose a very simple preferably very out of focus background.
DON'T GIVE YOUR VIEWERS ANYTHING TO LOOK AT BUT
THE SUBJECTS THAT YOU WANT THEN TO LOOK AT !
YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF WHAT YOUR VIEWERS SEE.
IF IT'S NOT PART OF YOUR COMPOSITION IT SHOULD NOT BE SEEN.
IT WILL BE A DISTRACTION AND WILL DOWNGRADE YOUR PHOTOGRAPH.
And that's my two cent's worth !
Have fun and let's see more of your work SOON please
eland
