Tricks of the Trade

As part of the ongoing completion of the New Year's Resolution, I am trying to learn new Photoshop tricks. I'm hoping to take my photos to a 'new level'. I watched a few tutorials online, but I am not all that sure of how this newly acquired knowledge is going to be put to use. I have tried out a few things... here are the results:

Not too shabby for a few 'tricks'...