Hi Russell,
What a wonderful experience it must be to see these baby turtles leaving the nest and heading straight to the sea; I know a few parents who would love it if their offspring had done exactly the same thing, but I digress!
Given that this is a tiny turtle on a very large beach, you probably did not have too many options when it came to making this photograph. Aside from the rather direct approach that you have taken here, the only other option would have beem to use a really wide-angle lens I get as close as possible to the turtle while trying to reveal some of the background. One other option would be to place the camera on the sand in front of the turtle and have it stomping towards you although conservation officers might grumble they caught you hindering the poor little creature's progress.
The one thing that I would do to improve this image is to adjust the curves, so as to create more separation in the darker tones while at the same time brightening the sand some more at the same time. Have a look at the example of the curves graph below… This is all I have done and it is really a simple adjustment.
Cheers, Anthony
Image Doctor's edited version
The Curves Adjustment
