By the sea, critique welcome :)

[marion]

Hi,

I must say this time, I'm happy with these two shots as somehow I feel I have captured two "moments" with the mimetism-like of the little child (my son) and the seagull. Buuut as I'm happy and am lacking experience, I really would like you to tell me everything that doesn't work and has to be improved as I won't see it by myself.
Please be harsh, I need to improve !
I chose nature and wildlife section instead of people and pets as I chose shots where the "child" is a neutral one so I guess this is nothing like a portrait.
Thanks so much in advance !

Shots taken with a Canon Eos 6D (I can't say how much I love my camera), with my 100mm f2.8 USM macro lens, priority aperture at f/2.8, iso 200 (and camera calculated 1/4000 for both). They are the jpg from the camera (I do have the raw files, I shoot raw+jpg), tried to post-process with DxO but finally let the original for the first one (maybe a very little unsharp mask but I'm not sure) and added a little vibrancy to the second one so that the tones match better the first picture.

[Stagecoach]

You have captured two great images here Marion for which the composition, of which could not be controlled, and the selective use of DOF makes them.

As for 'improvement' I'm sure there will be a few suggestions about crops but it may be worth considering losing just a bit of the bottom in No 1 to take the sand/sea line off centre. The other thing I would consider is just sharpening the 'subject' in each and nothing else.

Clever captures.

[nimitzbenedicto]

You have captured two great images here Marion for which the composition, of which could not be controlled, and the selective use of DOF makes them.

As for 'improvement' I'm sure there will be a few suggestions about crops but it may be worth considering losing just a bit of the bottom in No 1 to take the sand/sea line off centre. The other thing I would consider is just sharpening the 'subject' in each and nothing else.

Clever captures.

Yes. cropping the bottom-sand.

[Shadowman]

Both are very nice, the second a little scary as that is one humongous bird.

[deetheturk]

Very nice Marion!

[bnnrcn]

+1 to Grahame's comment

[benm]

In the first photo I might experiment cloning out the 4 birds at the water's edge and then cropping the right hand side. I like the second photo as is.

[chauncey]

Canon's macro lenses are underrated/underused lenses for non-macro work as they cough out incredible
detail. The Canon Utility Software includes a very competent RAW converter that ya might want to try.
The images seem a little on the flat side, maybe boost the contrast a little.

[Mark von Kanel]

great work! maybe do the crops and cloning as suggested by the others

[Geoff F]

For me, the first image should be cropped tighter so as to lose enough from the bottom and left side to remove that out of focus gull.

The second image works fine.

[IzzieK]

I thought the first shot will look good in portrait orientation (crop) as it is a very precious moment shot even with the abundance of the sand. Seeing that the shot is wide to start with, use the Rule of Thirds. The second shot is good as it is...

[John 2]

The seagull in the first image isn't right for me. The fact that it cuts across the other gulls on the waterline seems untidy but I love where you have placed your son in the composition. It has a feeling of his wonderment, looking out to sea. The second image works really well.