Can someone give me a crash course in great iPhone photography?

[SnapThrow]

Lots of good suggestions... lighting (exposure) and no digital zoom are super important, and taking several pics is a good suggestion... I would add turn on the camera lens grid and think about the rule of thirds for framing

 

[trparky]

OK, how is this photo?

 

[trparky]

Oh and I can't seem to get HDR mode to stick. I have to keep enabling it, it always seem to revert to Auto mode.

 

[Tartarus]

Go to Settings > Photos & Camera > Preserve Settings and see if you have enabled all the options there, just to be sure.

If you don't have that option yet, please know that I'm on the latest iOS beta. This means that in a future update you will have that option as well.

Until that time you will have to manually enable HDR.