Need advice on touching up photos

I've been tinkering around with my newest camera (a Canon A620), and I spent last week on a cruise ship, visiting some exotic islands like St Thomas. I took up a gig worth of shots, and they're all saved on my PC. I want to touch them up, but I'm still not sure what will bring out the best results. I have Photoshop, and the camera came with it's own editing program, but I could use your advice on what effects I could apply aside from tinkering with the brightness and contrast to bring out the best quality possible.

Here's a sample of the shots, each specific in the kind of photos I'm prone to taking (outdoors, fish life, dogs, etc).

Spoiler:

Offer your suggestions, and feel free to post your edited versions of my pics.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hmm, I dunno, the colors look a bit washed out. It works on the horses, but perhaps it needs to be lowered a bit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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One thing you wanna do is make sure that nothing is competing with the object of attention. The statue of that aristocrat (i think?) stands out a little more in the first, but in the edit the grass competes with it and the eye just decides to pull away from the image.

It's a pirate.

And I aggree, the edit takes too much focus away from the statue, which should be the center of attention. Touching up just the statue while leaving everything else intact would be the way to go (not sure if there's a way to do that though).

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The only thing I see wrong with the horses is a little pixelation on their bellies in the edit.

Also aggreed. The gold sheen is a nice touch, but the problem is that they look a bit pixelated. If there was a way to keep that color while keeping the horses smooth, then we have a winner.

I'm intrigued by the techniques you mentioned, but it would help a lot if you had pictures that serve as examples.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

That is some fantastic work, Kazyl. I really appreciate the advice, and I'll be sure to practice on it so I can emulate your awesome touch-jobs.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Sorry, I meant to reply to this sooner.

Piccolo, your touch-ups of my pictures are fantastic. That's the best version of my pirate photo yet. I'll be trying to follow your techniques from here on.

I was speaking idiomatically.