I'd like to say that this was meticulously planned with the presence of the running child and the flying seagull as a foreground to the exploding waves in the background.

The reality was that I was only really concentrating on the waves. For one thing in the age of paranoia it is considered very suspect indeed to be taking photographs of children (even if you're their grandparents, which I hasten to add is not the case here but I'm just saying) and doubly so if you're male rather than female. In the circumstances I probably mentally filtered out the youngster from what I was seeing, but considering that you can't even tell whether that's a boy or a girl I think they're a safe inclusion in this shot, especially given that the bounciness of their stride is reflection of the energy in the water.