Some very nice captures, BR. Your technique has come a very long way in a short time.
The macro shot of the penguin can work, but you need a bit more DOF and you need to set your focal point on the eye.
Some of these seem a tad soft. For example, the image that says, "I'm so lonely" shows a 1.6 second shutter at ISO 100. Even if you're on a tripod that's a tad long on your shutter for an animal. The slightest movement causes you to lose sharpness. I'd go for bumping the ISO and trying to get a shutter at least around 1/320 or so.
The penguin macro was a bit of an accident. He was about 10' away and just kept coming closer until he ran into my knee and just stopped. With the always 20/20 hindsight, I should have manually adjusted the focus to his eye. The only problem was that he kept trying to bite the camera, so I had to keep an eye on him while I took the picture.
As far as shutter speed, my goal was to get something I could print BIG (20"x30"), so I really wanted to keep the noise down. I really have to get NoiseNinja or something. Also, I can't remember if I applied any sharpening to these.
Even if you bump the ISO to, say, 400, you shouldn't have much noise on your camera --- PROVIDED that it is exposed properly. Dim or dark areas will show the noise a lot worse than brighter areas.
Programs such as Elements or the equivalent have some noise-reducing capability too. While not as good as Noise Ninja, it'll help considerably.
