When taking photos of any type it is very easy for people to get use to taking photos just in automatic mode...cameras nowadays do a very good job in auto mode but step outside your comfort zone and start with even shooting in different scene modes like portrait & landscape to see the difference!  The more you understand your camera the better your photos will look.  When you have "mastered" the different scene modes, if your camera is equipped try shooting in S, A and eventually M modes.  S is for shutter priority, you control how long the shutter stays open.  A is for Aperture which indicates how wide open your lens is...the smaller the number the more wide open your lens is the more light that is let in.  The larger the number the narrower the lens is open and less light is let in.  Your camera guide will be fairly helpful, READ IT!  When you are done with the manual, places like Chapters and Indigo have hundreds of books that you can pick up and lastly of course, the Internet is a great source of information to Google questions!  Happy shooting :)