Keep your babies close.

[Walter C]

While shooting another sunset down at the pier I saw this child trudging along the sand. Hundreds of people on the pier contrasts with the lone small figure.

[schmintan]

I like the composition, the child in silhouette, the angle of the sea & the Pier giving depth.

The processing has been pushed too far though, IMO. It looks very grainy like its been oversharpened, and the colors just dont look natural. I know you can get awesome colors at sunset, but they just look too vivid/saturated here, and the clouds look way too dark like they have been hit heavily with the burn tool.

I would give processing it another go. Grain from the sky is easy, duplicate image, Gaussian blur it so make it look silky smooth, turn the layer into a mask and just paint in the now smooth sky.

I would clone out the bird also, the subject is the child, and the pier with people in the background. The bird just steals attention away from that.

Nice job, but to make it into a framer for the wall give the processing another go.

As always, i qualify my statement as saying thats all my subjective opinion and totally constructive, i.e. if i criticize something, il say why i think it looks off, and not simply "this looks awful" or some other statemetn of no use.

[wolverines]

I think the compostion is great. It looks a little grainy to me as well. However, it may be my monitor or from uploading it to the site. It really is a great shot. I'm still learning photography so I mean no disrespect with my criticism. I think you caught the moment very nicely!

[Calicajun]

Wonderful composition and colors, like the balance between the pier on one side and the little girl and bird on the other side. Makes the eye travel down the center of the picture seeing different details as the eye travels to the end.

[ItDontMeanAThing]

+1 for leaving the bird as is. It creates one point of a triangle composition. Symbolically it represents the child as free as a bird.

[Magnet]

I like it...
It has great reflections everywhere...it is like a poet for me!!
It was sunset
the dove was flying
staring to a child
jumping over the sea

people are wet
watching this side
tears of blind
mirror blue orange