I bought the next model Nissin up from that one and have been very happy with it. At the time, it got equivalent reviews of the Nikon speedlight (SB800) and it was easily half the price.
I think you'd be happy with the Nissin.

Nikon CaptureNX2.

Thank you, Bruinista. I use Nikon CaptureNX2 for all my photo editing. It's a very powerful editor and doesn't use layers. I find layers too hard to work with. It uses "U-Point Technology" where you put a control point right on the part you want to edit and edit away. Note that it doesn't have near the number of features that Photoshop has, but I'm not into the graphics end of it so much, so I'm fine with what I'm using.
Anyway, there was a lot of use of the healing tool (clone semi-equivalent in Photoshop) and some noise reduction, white balance adjustment, a slight blur to the entire image and then undid the blur on all exposed skin, brightened the image. This one took awhile - probably around 30 minutes.

I tend to take pics of waterfalls with the intent to convey some of the power of the water. Part of what makes waterfalls so awesome is the power and sound they make. Hard to convey the sound, but real soft water loses the power effect. A little softness to convey motion is good, but not milky soft (cotton candy as I like to call it).
I think backing off on the softness and a change in composition, as has already been mentioned, would make a more dramatic image, IMO.

I have a hiking stick/monopod that is made by Komperdell. It has a removable rubber cover over the metal spike tip and the rest is made of aluminum. There is foam up near the top for a comfy grip and a cork ball at the very top that unscrews and you can attach a ball head, or camera, directly to that screw. And, it's collapsible and fully adjustable to your height.
I picked it up at REI several years ago.

I didn't see no troll and I didn't pay no toll.

Thanks all. Rayford, you are so right.

Thanks, colo and Gidgette.

How's this?

Carolstar's pic.

Dandelion

Beautiful pics. What a handsome fella.

Fun with my 105mm macro (micro, in Nikon-ese)

She looks pretty full of pollen.

My wife and I walked under this bridge while walking around Mission Bay. The image just jumped out at me as we were passing under.

Under the Bridge

I only delete in-camera if I see, on the little camera screen, that the pic is no good. Otherwise, I'll wait and transfer pics to my computer. Ensure all pics transferred, then while the card is connected to my computer I'll delete the pics from the card. After that, I'll delete pics from my computer as I see I don't like them.

Water is one of the toughest things to do in a panorama because it is constantly moving. Unless you are lucky enough to get a really placid time. Because of the movement the reference points the software uses to make the alignment change and the software has a hard time making those alignments. I only see one misalignment in the water, so you did really well. Great first effort, IMO.