A day at the beach, C&C requested

Headed out to the shore area last weekend for dinner and spent a few hours at the beach working out my new 70D. The beach and boardwalk are favorite shooting environments for me. Here's a few shots I thought were keepers, but would like your input on what I could do to improve.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/n675​B8

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/n68S​cf

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/namr​fw

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nakd​4K

Those were all nice, with interesting perspectives. The last 3 are a little hot in the highlights. I'd like the guy in #2 pulled out of the shadow a little more.

#1 - no interest for me - just about everyone facing away...
#2 - agree with j michael
#3 - too centered
#4 - horizon crooked

I think the fun house needs to be in color, its a fun house not an abandoned ruin. I like B&W on old buildings, does not work for me here.
love the guy though.

J Michael wrote in post #16845949
Those were all nice, with interesting perspectives. The last 3 are a little hot in the highlights. I'd like the guy in #2 pulled out of the shadow a little more.

Not sure what you mean by "hot in the highlights." I double-checked and they aren't blown-out. Here's #2 with the interior brightened-up a bit, please let me know if this works better:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ndfi​TU

Acetoolguy wrote in post #16846819
I think the fun house needs to be in color, its a fun house not an abandoned ruin. I like B&W on old buildings, does not work for me here.
love the guy though.

I think of fun houses as dark and scary places. And, for now, I prefer B&W. But here's the color version. I think next time I'm going to shoot from a lower angle to get all of the "A*MAZE*ING" sign inside the entrance, and try to wait for some people to be coming out.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nfk2​oW

planet5D wrote in post #16846070
#1 - no interest for me - just about everyone facing away...

I get what you mean. My interest was in the boardwalk, and for me the people were background objects. But now that you mention it, I agree, would have been more interesting if I waited to see more faces.

planet5D wrote in post #16846070
#2 - agree with j michael

Please let me know if you like the above edit better.

planet5D wrote in post #16846070
#3 - too centered

Initially I didn't think that changing the crop would make a big difference. Now I'm not so sure. What do you think of this crop?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nfk9​Ac

planet5D wrote in post #16846070
#4 - horizon crooked

Fixed in OP.

Thanks for the comments so far, they've been very helpful.

Huge fan of photo 4--nice work with an avant garde edge to it.

OK that's interesting. The guy in #2 gave it kind of a creepy vibe that was pretty cool - he appears to be sort of lurking in the shadow. The new version brings him out more but it kind of lost the vibe in the original.

Would have loved to see #4 with a bit of a longer exposure (probably would need an ND filter) to get the water like silk Agreed initially about Fun House being in colour, but now having seen it I'm not sure - the man does indeed lose his vibe!

salmonidae wrote in post #16853828
Would have loved to see #4 with a bit of a longer exposure (probably would need an ND filter) to get the water like silk

Agreed. I didn't bring the tripod or ND's with me, though. I'll probably get out there again before the beach gets busy. There are a few other views I wanted to capture but I missed focus or had the wrong angle. Also kite surfers on the other side of the inlet I just saw for the first time, and usually some interesting characters fishing from the jetty (but it was pretty empty that day).