Try taking pictures during the "golden hour" (sunset). Almost any outdoor picture, particularly clouds and water, is going to be much less dull during that time

Try taking pictures during the "golden hour" (sunset). Almost any outdoor picture, particularly clouds and water, is going to be much less dull during that time. Colors from the sunset are reflected off of everything else making the image much more vivid. And like sangnoir said learn how to post-process. If you're taking pictures in RAW format you'll be amazed at how much you can transform a boring picture.