What camera?

cool $1500 should get you a nice setup Canon 400D (maybe 40D), couple of nice lenses, I'd grab something liek the 17-85mm good walkabout lens, then after a while see what you enjoy most, macro (close up) you'll want a good macro lens, sport / wildlife you should invest in a quality telephoto, (quite pricy for better glass like the Canon 100-400mm L ) or you could buy something cheep and cheerful like the 75-300mm, if you like panoramas, you could go with something more on the low focla length end, e.g. 10-22mm. then after a month / few weeks youll realise how much youd like a flash, thats the time to visit http://www.strobist.com/ and grab yourself a flash, if you have lots of spare $$$ get the 580EX II else grab something a bit more budget (but still VERY usefull) i.e. 430 EX.

Have loads of fun and remember Nikon is out there too...

No need to spend insane amounts of money getting started. If your on a budget look into the canon digital rebel. However, with the release of the 40D the Canon 20D can be found really cheap now. Just remember when buying lenses, this is the kinda thing where you really do get what you pay for. Expect to pay aroun 1k for a quality lens, or look at lines like sigma for budget options, dont cheap out if you dont have to. Get a flash too!