I've spent the past few days doing some online research about lenses and flashes, and finally decided to invest in a canon 430EX flash. It fits into the hotshoe (flash attachment thing) of canon rebels, can be manually controlled, can point in different directions etc. It won't arrive until next week, but I'm looking forward to experimenting and hopefully seeing an improvement in my flash photos.

This photo features Gromit, a friend's dog. He kept moving, and given my current flash incapabilities, I tried to catch him while he rested near a window. Alas, his nose and tongue are fuzzy.