Chuck, I'm surprised that the pictures didn't wash out with the built-in flash. Doesn't the D300 have a commander mode for the auxillary flashes.
I use a D90 and set the commander mode so that only the auxillary flashes go off. They can be usually be set far enough away or close enough to bounce the light.
Here are a few pictures using an old Nikkor 28-85, that can autofocus with the D90 but in Macro (28mm only) you have to manual focus. The lens was approximately 2" from subjects.
Naturally the pictures were cropped. The actual size of the bill is 13/16" long x 5/8" high.
I was using a point and shoot for some time, but got back into SLR shooting with DSLR's. You are able to get much better photos.
