just got the 430ex...

my 430 came in the mail today. my first flash . i am still trying to figure some stuff out with it. it is going to be weird controlling two devices at once and making sure i am checking both. but yea. it is fun so far.

Congrats, not sure which two devices you will be controlling though. I generally leave the flash in ETTL mode and just control the camera via M mode. The flash will pretty much take care of itself.

Don't think of controlling two devices - the flash pretty much just does what the camera tells it to do, at least in E-TTL mode.

But you should think of every shot as two exposures in one - an ambient light exposure and a flash exposure. Learning how to balance the two is the key in some cases. Eliminating the ambient altogether works best in other situations.

If you haven't already done so, reading the EOS Flash Bible will help greatly with the learning process.