I’m looking to break out of the cube farm and break into a photography career by either doing some spot contract work or landing a full blown photographer job. I have been told by many that I have an eye for it and have landed some contract jobs for a few magazines.

Also, any insight on how to become recognized and how to find jobs is helpful!
I’m mostly into nature, macro, travel, and outdoor, and panoramics.
I’m open to any kind of work to get my career going!

Well there are number of places to find work, but you have to be on the ball and search daily, try using a custom job search that will search a number of job sites to find the job that is perfect for you.

I am new to digital photography and have the Nikon D80.. I just started working with Smith Victor studio lighting(FLC200 & 110i) and am stuck on how to turn off the "pop up" flash and still allow the camera to fire off the 3 studio lights. Right now the camera opens the small flash unit and then the 3 lights will sync. But that seems to destroy the idea of the studio set up since the people are being washed out..

Read your user manual. There may be a means to disable the pop up flash. Otherwise, check out the link below.