good idea with a good choice of images to blend -- masking of the smaller gull could use some touch up around the head and there are a few ragged areas on the branch to the right of the same gull

nice eye alan thanks

this made me smile.....

Like the way you used the branch for the waves!

I think it can be better without the texture effect, and with playing with light. Good luck author !

Great concept. I do agree with Lolu though ...You can add very nice and easily editable textures by:

Add a 50 percent gray layer with the blend mode set on Soft Light (Overlay and Hard light work too ... just stronger); apply filters (you can combine them until you get a look that you like - e.g. stain glass, monochromatic noise ...you can do this in more than 1 layer). You can warp them or transform them; you can paint some out or back in (using gray); you can blur or sharpen.

Once you think you like what you have created. Voila! You now have a texture that you can work on, change opacity, lighten (use lighter grays to white), darken (use darker grays to black) and all without harming the main image.

Trick: the neutral gray layer is also a great way to play with the lighting almost like dodge and burn but non-destructive ... use white for highlights, black to darken and/or intensify and 50 percent gray to bring back to neutral (no change).

Arca gives a nice tip, you can try it. Beautiful image, though.

nice

I like the treatment here, it really looks like one pic.