I live in Cape Town. My home is five minutes walk to where the Zand river estuary flows into False Bay. Up stream I have a view towards the back of Table Mountain and others in the chain that makes up the Table Mountain National Park. This is part of the UNESCO Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site.
There are spectacular sunrises over my beach and rocks, and sunsets at the beaches over the beaches on the other side of the mountains.
Inland are vineyards, wheat fields, semi desert landscapes and forests.
What a playground for photography.
The city’s community is a diverse collection from countries all the way up Africa, as well as settlers from across the world. It is the heartland of the earliest people of our continent, the Khoi and San tribes.
In joining this group I want to get guidance on how to use the technicalities of my camera to better capture all these elements of my environment, and to learn what compositional, lighting, and human elements make a good photograph.
Welcome to NPN, Marian! What a gorgeous place to call home you have. I look forward to more of your photos in this group.
Thanx. I hope to learn much from the skills of those on the network
Marian, welcome to NPN. I hope you find the site to your satisfaction. It sounds like a wonderful place to live and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your images from there as well as your comments on others’ images. Again, welcome!
Hi Marian! Welcome to the NPN community! This is a great place to learn and improve. That is a lovely introduction image. I can’t wait to see more of your work.
Welcome Marian! Wow, what a great location you live in. I hope you find the NPN community a positive impact to your photography.
Hi Marian,
Welcome to NPN! Great to have you here. You’ve come to a great place to learn and collaborate with other photogs!
Now I know you didn’t ask for a critique and this an introduction after all… but thought I would make one mention - or more clearly and opinion. For sure, that’s all critiques are - are opinions. 
Love the quiet peacefulness of this beach scene. Which doesn’t sound right because we all know the pounding sound of the surf… but I know at least for me, that’s peaceful! To me the image is about the beach, the receding waters, the shorebirds (ok, they’re gulls…) And also the sky. Interesting how the color/tone is similar throughout - and I’m guessing this was a sunset gone bust - it never happened. Well, that’s ok! I really like the tones and what color there is - adds to the calming feeling.
The only suggestion would be to crop down to remove much of the darker cloud in the UR (upper right). Mostly to take the image out of the 50/50 split composition. Otherwise, really enjoying this image.
Thanks for sharing. We look forward to your images and participation!
Lon
Hi Marian, Welcome to NPN. I am sure you’ll get a lot of good learning out of this community. I live about an hour from the Pacific Coast and love the water, ocean, and beaches. Cape Town sounds like a wonderful place to be for that kind of photography. I really like your image, it has wonderful leading lines into the ocean. I think @Lon_Overacker’s crop suggestion is a good one. I started out with the first guideline in photography: the rule of thirds. Keep the horizon in the upper third and the foreground in the lower third. It’s a great start and then it becomes fun to break the rule. 
Anyway, looking forward to more of your images.
Cheers,
David
Thanx Lon for your valued opinion. The subtle pink shade of a cloudy winter sunrise is one of my favourite things about this pic. We get spectacular autumn sunrises here. I’m nervous to post some of them for fear of being accused of saturating the colour.
Should I spot out some of the beach clutter (pebbles/too many gulls)? Someone told me they cluttered the image…
Thanx for your welcome Dave - and views on my pic.
As a probably pending member what are the rule about my posting pix now?
m
Hi Marian, thank you and you’re welcome. As far as cloning and cleanup, IMHO, there is a point of diminishing returns - plus, what you’re willing to do and go thru. Personally, there is nothing in this image that I would have cloned out if it were mine. Once you start down that path, you could clone out the two larger objects in the lower left LL, quadrant and mabye, maybe the one gull near the right edge - only because it’s really close to the edge. But then there are too many to count, small pebbles, etc. that are just part of the natural scene.
The obvious and following question becomes, “well, if you clone the bird on the right, why not clone some other birds to make this more simple?” Great question, and by sheer chance, there could have been fewer birds more perfectly placed, naturally… but at some point most would argue you’re manipulating the scene as to what you saw and experienced. Now, you could have clapped your hands, yelled and scattered the birds and thus have a no-bird image… so what’s the difference? Well, the difference is what you’re willing to do and what you’re willing to disclose.
But this is a whole 'nuther topic one which has been debated for a couple centuries, actually.