The foundation of a good photographer is actually practicing the art, regardless of the tools at hand. When I first started in the field, I bought myself a Canon PowerShot A95, which took a large portion of my meager college freshman bank account. Even with what is an elaborate point-and-shoot camera, I’ve managed to take several print-worthy shots.
As time went on, though, I found the A95 to be somewhat restrictive. Thus I highly recommend (provided it is in your budget) any photographer to pick up some sort of DSLR, even if it is somewhat old at this point. I shoot with the relatively recent Canon EOS 450D and have used a Nikon D50.
I have been hired by local businesses to do publicity work. Of these, I am most proud the pictures I took for Teela Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant in Sandy Springs, GA. They have used my work extensively on their website, teelataqueria.com.
I visit a number of events at and near Georgia Tech, and take pictures for myself and generally post them on flickr within a week of the event under a creative commons license. These are free to use under the terms of the license. With these freely licensed photos, I am mostly concerned that they be correctly attributed. If you would like to specifically request my services for an event or for other publicity, I usually charge a modest, negotiable hourly fee. Contact me at aguyton [at] gmail [dot] com or facebook.com/andrewguyton for more details.