I take the pictures that aren't of me, and then I get whoever is around to take the photos of myself! Yesterday it was my mum, who knows absolutely nothing about photography! I'll just set the camera up for her and off we go : )
As for my camera, the one I'm using at the moment is a Canon 400d (its rather old!) with a 50mm 1.4 lens, however, if I'm in London and can get my hands on my boyfriends camera, I use a Canon 5d instead. So its a mixture of those two!

Have you tried editing them? It often makes a big difference! If you don't have photoshop, try a website called picnik.com - it's great!