Im also a noob to the photography thing, If your not shooting with a DSLR yet invest in one. I have just a lil simple Canon xs nothing special But works great for lil simple shooting. Think you can pick up a xs new now days for like 400$ or so.

Heres a lil shot i did at a show, I like to stay level with cars "as you will see in alot of other peoples pics" I only use a lil crappy editing that my notebook came with again nothing special & didn't mess with the photo to much just messed with the contrast a lil to give the clouds a lil more pop

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesready/5879928102/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesready/5879928102/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/jamesready/, on Flickr