The trick to good photography?

Today I learned a lot of tricks in photoshop that makes me wonder... is photoshopping what seperates the good photographers from the rest?! I can't believe the difference. I thought my original picture looked great, but look at it after I photoshopped it!
Original:
After:

Black & White:

Cute Leprechaun 14 months

This guy is near impossible to catch in a picture anymore, but I caught him for 1/2 a second!

Tommy 7 months

I was going back through my pictures & found this one from vacation last summer. I loved this lush green botanical garden :) You have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see just how beautiful it is.