I had the good fortune to score some nice lenses at $2 (no, I didn't leave off some zeros). This morning I tried out my new 24mm/2.8 Nikkor prime lens. It is fully manual, I don't have a hand held light metre and I am using a Nikon D80. I am new to DSLR photography and have never taken shots of the dawn sun before, any advice or criticism is appreciated.

I am not entirely happy with the composition of some of my shots - I should know better, I might be new to DSLR photography but I'm not new to art. Learning the techniques of shooting directly into the sun at dawn is another matter. I'm getting up again until I get this right... just need to know what to improve first! Any and all advice on technique, composition, anything, is welcomed.

These have been shot it RAW and JPEG - these are the JPEGs, no post production apart from making them a tad smaller for the web.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall2.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall3.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall4.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall6.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall5.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/Kizzikat/dawnbeachsmall1.jpg