Cheers pal, I had it in Auto mode and it was taking the pic pretty quick, but I'll try Shutter Priority mode next time and increase the speed it's taken
this might not help you as the darker half of your photo is perfectly well exposed... so if you increase the shutter speed for the backlight then the front part of your photo will be very dark
there are ways around this
have a look at the HDR techniques mentioned in one of the stickies, also consider exposing for the sky but using fill in flash with exposure compensation to illuminate the front part of your photo.. alternatively photoshop or lightroom2 are your friend