What are some things all photographers should have?

I've been asked by family members what I want for Christmas… And would like to pursue photography. I have the camera (Nikon D5000) and a laptop, but that's about it.

What are some things you've found very useful or some things you wish you had, as a professional photographer?

Added (1). Eric… I appreciate your answer but I'm not a novice photographer, and I know what it takes. I was simply asking the opinion of professional photographers which piece of equipment they thought was most important… You assumed wrong, I have several lenses for my D5000, more than just what came with the camera. I don't photograph portraits, weddings or families either. You were pretty quick to judge.

Tripod

Tripod, remote, extra cards, ultra wide zoom, bag, polarizer filter, books, f/1.4 prime lens, extra battery, f/2.8 long zoom, grey card, SB-900 flash.

An understanding of how to use your camera in Manual mode will be worth more to you than any piece of gear.

You do understand that, to start doing contracts, you need over 10000$ worth of gear right? 2 bodies, backup lenses, backup batteries… So on so forth. Not having a backup for every piece of gear you bring is just asking to be sued.

Also, what type of photography do you plan on focusing on first? Weddings, sports, fashion, landscape… Each type of photography requires different gear.

An 24-70mm f2.8 won't be very useful for a wildlife photographer. An 800mm F4 won;t be of much use to a stock photographer. A flash won;t be very useful for a landscape photographer so on so forth.

Ok so you have a D5000, I assume you only have a kit lens so either a 18-55 or whatever the longer zoom kit is. I'll have to assume you'll be doing portraits (family, weddings… That type of thing).

Here is some gear for portraits that really made an impact.

1- A shoe mount flash.
2- Pro glass. I LOVE my 24-70mm f2.8.
3- Off camera lighting (couple of manual flashes, some remote triggers, light-stands, modifiers, diffusers… )

A shoe mount flash is great! If you are shooting portraits with only one flash make sure it is above the lens… This will help with unwanted shadows. Higher if the subject has big brown eyes ( red eye).
Sittings are fine, however if you are shooting weddings: back up everything! This is the most important day in her life and if you mess up she will have every right to hate you! If you do not love weddings don't do them! They are way too important for a photographer to just want to make a buck!
Get a "mac" for editing, nuff said.

Large external hard drive so you don't fill up your computers hard drive, and photoshop (for windows) or apeture (for mac)

-Tripod
-External Flash (two is even better)
-Fast Lenses
-National geographic DSLR bag!

I'm not a pro but…

Adobe Lightroom. I love it. Look at the Adobe web site and see what it can do for you.

How about a couple speed lights that work with the Nikon Creative Lighting System.