A tale of two shots

I took some time off from work last Thursday and made a brief trip up to Desker's Creek in Preston County.  There was still a good bit of snow on the ground, and I didn't exactly come prepared to do what I did, which was to work my way down into a ravine that held a torrent of icy water.

Not knowing what I'd do next, I fired off a bunch of shots with my camera.  This one has certain aesthetic elements, as I composed it for all of the triangles in the picture:  the fallen tree, the path of the water, the sky, etc.

You can follow certain rules of composition and make the best out of a sow's ear, but this picture is still a sow's ear.  It's too busy.  The snow-covered tree is interesting, but there's just too much going on here.

I mustered the courage to climb up and go back down a little further up stream.  I crawled onto a boulder and took this next shot.

This one doesn't scream "winter" like the other one.  You have to look carefully to notice the snow.  And the composition is pretty straightforward here:  law of thirds, with the top of the falls and the bottom of the falls taking up the middle third.

Still, this picture is way nicer than the previous shot.  It's the one that made it worth falling on my ass for.