Birds bathing in the (Sun through the clouds).

I took this photo with no tripod, and only minimal planning. I am

simply wondering what I could do to make this photo better, and what

all I need to think about when composing a picture like this. Thanks.

Here's my take on it:

1) The grain on the print seems horrible (I'm assuming that this is a scan from a print). A scan from the negative might fix this.

2) In these type of compositions, a 50/50 split between sea and sky vertically (horizon line runs straight through the centre of the frame) is considered boring. Focussing on the interesting cloud pattern and sun, or the birds on the poles would produce a more dramatic image.

3) This image seems fairly underexposed. Remember that bright sunlight will fool your camera's meter, and you need to compensate (difficult to do in this case without blowing out the highlights even more than they are though).

4) If you had not told me they were birds, I would have had trouble figuring out what was in the foreground. They look like fuzzy indistinct blobs in the scan. A longer lens would probably have helped singling out a bird against the beautiful backlit background.