How much flash power needed?

I have been reading with interest some of the threads with the awesome work of Jason Cole and others and realized they used large softboxes with high power strobes to achieve the images they post...so I did a few tests with a SB800 to see if how it faired at small apertures on bright sunny days and was pleasantly surprised to see that an on camera flash could do pretty good to get similar effects. I am going to shoot INTO the sun next and see what happens...

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I realize it is not much of a test but even in this photo my daughter was in direct sunlight with sun just over her shoulder...

My point being that for us that cannot afford the studio set-ups on location the SB800 or equivalent can do a pretty decent job.
The low angles are because I was trying to get the sun and sky in the pic

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I think the key is to make it look natural. In these 2 photos, the first thing that hits me is I know you used a flash. All shadows are eliminated. You can also try using a large whiteboard to bounce some of the sun back on the subject just to lift the shadows and not obliterate it.

Yes, I agree, I was just seeing how much pwer the little flashes had, the examples are certainly not great photos.

You need to go read the strobist.