Winter Sunrise Critique opportunity :-)

[mmvt]

The last photo I posted got such a great response in terms of critique and learning so here's another! this is a photo i took Christmas morning. It was completely unplanned as we were driving to my brother's house after getting the call that my 2 young nieces were awake and Santa had arrived. It was a beautiful morning with a fresh dusting of snow. I, literally, jumped out of the car, snapped a few shots and got back in. Thus far, I have cropped a bit from the bottom of this shot and am also inclined to crop the top down to the tops of the trees on the left but am posting it here without doing that.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

[autzig]

Not too many hanging around here these days so I'm not sure how many responses you will get but I'll offer my 2 cents. There is not much to say as this is a very nice photo. I don't know about your idea of cropping from the top because that would put the sun in the middle of the shot. You don't want it to be a bulls eye. I would suggest a slight crop from the bottom because of one thing; that little plant on the bottom right. It is dark and for me is a distraction. The sun lights up the field very nicely and then there is that thing that is not lit. You might want to consider a crop that makes the sun less centered horizontally. I'm not sure such a composition would be better but it might be worth a try.

What aperture were you using? A smaller aperture may have produced an even better sunburst. What you captured is very nice but a very small aperture would be worth a try. Shooting directly into the sun often produces unwanted flaring but I don't see that in your photo.

I wish I could be of more help, but with a great photo it is hard to say anything more than great photo.

Al

[Utah Baker]

Mmvt,I am just the pupil here, but I know what I like, and I think this is a beautiful Christmas sunrise shot! I love it! And I can see how you would want to crop the top to just where the cloud on the left shapes an angle type wing, but then I obiviously tend to like "bullseyes". Maybe it's just the way I seem to be orientented...........well centered!

[Andy]

I would like to see the uncropped image to see what the foreground looks like. It is almost a truism that photography is about light. Here, you have captured the ultimate light source. I look at an image for the points of interest, They seem to me to be in three places in this shot: the sky, the sun and the nicely lit foreground field. To me, the darker areas on each side are not as interesting and take up more of the overall image than they should. I would be inclined to look at a "portrait" (vertical) presentation here, showing as much of the interesting sky as I could, as well as the sun and the lit field, cropping some of each side off. You will probably need to make some choices about just what to exclude and what to leave in

[mmvt]

Thanks for the responses everyone!
Al, I shot this at f9 and certainly could have gone much smaller! the original photo had just one visible flare on the right side- i cropped it out. I could also crop a bit more from the bottom although don't want to lose too much of the sparkling/well lit snow.
Janice, i cannot show a centered photo to Al or Andy … and I did make a slight adjustment to this one to straighten the horizon!
Andy, i need to get back to my original photo (on a different computer) to play around with your idea. I like the look of the dark trees on both edges but can envision your suggestion as painting a very different scene/feel. I do know that there is not much more in the foreground of this photo as i was standing on the edge of the field (it was right off of a main road). From the bottom, i cropped an area that was not lit up by the sun. i had my wide angle lens on the camera and didn't have time to make a lens change because of kids waiting for me to get to their house to open Santa's presents
I appreciate the critiques and feedback!