Off-camera Lighting (besides the sun)

I've recently been reading about and looking into off-camera lighting, that is, using flashes or lights that aren't connected to the camera. The Strobist blog is written by a photojournalist who specializes in (relatively) cheap off-camera lighting to get great shots rather than expensive lenses and/or camera bodies.

In this case, "relatively cheap" still isn't within my budget, so yesterday I tried some off-camera lighting that I already had access to. I used this setup (a lamp):


Even this kind of lighting combined with my distinct lack of knowledge or expertise can yield results. The first picture below was taken without the lamplight. It has more ambiance than the second photo (taken with lamplight) but has less "pop" and really doesn't look that great. I wouldn't consider the second photo good either (the reflection of the light on the phone looks pretty unprofessional), but it definitely is more dynamic than the first shot.