Heading to the Mountains!

[brooklyn2489]

A quick shot I took heading up to the mountains. Let me know what you think and how I can improve this shot.
Second shot is from the mountains overlooking the city.

[LeeIs]

the 2nd one is the better of the two, but it suffers from over exposed areas, lens flare, and the rail thing at the bottom coulda been cropped.

[AgingEyes]

If I have to pick, I'd pick the first one.

In the second one, the trees in particular and the rocks in the foreground are too overwhelming. If it's a typical landscape, big view shot, I'm not sure there's a lot to see in the background and the reason is because a large part of it is being hidden by the trees and the rocks. Could be better if you'd have got closer or shot from a higher perspective. Then you were shooting from the wrong angle, letting some sunlight enter into your lens and hence the flare. Were you shooting in your car?

For the first one, IMO the composition is more interesting. You have a road that is leading the eye from foreground to the background. But, if not because of the car, the road is leading the eye out of the photo. As presented, both the foreground and the background are showing pretty good details. You were in the shade so flare is not a problem (but a big one in the second photo not to mention the overblown highlights near the top right).

So there. My $0.02.