Digital SLR cameras have brought high quality photography gear to the masses
. But it is important to remember that a high quality Digital SLR camera is only part of what you need to take beautiful photographs. You also need to understand how to make best use of your camera and that can be quite a lot more complicated with a DSLR camera than with a consumer quality point and click.
I believe even more important than knowing all the technicalities of how to use your camera is having a good eye. You need to develop a great sense of what will make a good picture. A good example of this kind of "eye" can be seen when looking through these Original Prints by one of my favorite artistic photographers.
From personal experience I recommend the Canon Rebel XTi DSLR. It's a great SLR camera that has worked for me without any real issues for approximately four years now. It is also rather inexpensive by the pricing standards of professional quality cameras. You should consider that those standards are quite high, it's about $700 even without a lens!
When you learn more on the subject of pro quality cameras you will find that the lens on the camera is extremely important. If you are used to point and click cameras then you are most likely used to thinking that the megapixel count is the most important thing about a camera but that's not the case at all.
With SLRs, the lens is what makes the biggest difference in the quality of the photographs. Truthfully the subject of lenses is too deep for me to cover in this article, I simply want to make you aware of how important they are and that if you want to get serious about taking exceptional pictures you will need to look into the topic deeply.
Just like with all other skills, you will only become a better photographer with plenty of studied practice. You will need to read all about the art of photography and then you will need to take lots of photos testing out all of what you have learned!