Dont Clone it out on my behalf Nigel... It was only a joke, i have a running thing about seagulls.
Richie is spot on, remember photography is subjective! To prove that point post a picture here 5 people will dislike it, 5 people will love it. You will know when you get it right! Dont think for a moment every shot is going to be good. Even pros make mistakes some of the guys on here will be the first to admit I'm sure. But they are Pros because they do it day in day out and there expert at what they do. They know their equipment inside out, they know their subject, and they know how to Photograph it, even in the most difficult lighting and get the best out of it.
If you ask most people how many photos they shoot to how many they post on Flickr or wherever im sure the ratio will be fairly low, in other words people only post there best shots.
One thing that helped me was a checklist, i went on a workshop a fair few years ago and the Guy running the workshop reccommended it. It seemed like basic stuff, but I cant think how many times i whipped the camera out and forgot to, Reset the ISO, Change from continuous focus, Change back from spot metering, the list goes on. It gets shorter as you get better at photography, then as you get older (And have more brain farts) its gets longer again!
. (BTW its Just a little card with memory joggers on it)
Eventually it becomes second nature and you do it automatically like driving a car...... I recently was caught out by not checking the front element of the lens.... (Big smear across the filter) Took a load of shots, and i dont care what camera you have those LCD displays on the back, dont show you the whole story, you dont see that till its up on the screen at home!
Anyhow this is meant to be an encouraging post! You have a great shot there, so you can see you are more than capable and hearing about others pitfalls may help you to not fall into the same traps. You have made a great start, lots of brilliant posts on here, plus lots of helpful people. Remember the more you shoot the more you learn.
Enjoy!