What can I do to improve on this shot?

This shot was taken a couple of nights ago, around 11:30pm dockside on Lake Couchiching near Orillia, Ontario.

I would have stuck around and taken more shots except that 2 unidentified animals came on the dock from out of the water and started making unidentifiable noises that freaked me out b/c it was really dark and I was the only one out there . I'm normally not that skittish of a person, but sounds at night can reallly sound more threatening than they are (as I quickly found out ).

This shot was taken at:
SS - 15 sec
f/8
17mm (Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L)
ISO-800

The only PP that's been done to it is noise reduction with NN. There is an orangy glow to the right side of the sky and reflection and I think that's from the lights in Orillia.

I would really appreciate some C&C!

Thanks!

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I think it's a really cool shot. I love the sky, the water and the dock is a little too noticable in my mind but the picture wouldn't be the same without it.

I'm glad you got out of there before the boogey man gotcha!

Wonder how it would look without the ligths on the horizon.That is an awesome sky and lake.

See if you like this any better. I lightened the highlights and darkened the dock in curves and added a little saturation to the yellows.

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Let me tell you, when there are weird noises right under your feet with only a plank of wood separating you from the weird noise maker... I wasn't going to stick around to find out what it was .

Yeah, there wasn't much I could do about the lights... I did look around for some different angles and perspectives but couldn't come up with much else. I do like what I did manage to capture though.

Thanks for the input Randy. I played around with lightening the photo too but it took away from the fact that it was photographed so late at night, so I left it as the original capture when it came to lighting.

I like the shot as you originally posted and, IMO, you did the best with what you had. One improvement to the composition may have been the addition of a small rowboat or something. Or maybe a different angle which would've given the photo a different composition made-up of the lines from the dock. Unfortunately, sometimes necessary improvements are not within our control.

Just stumbled on this one....

Post processing wise, I think you've done very well indeed.

Composition wise I am in 2 minds, the jetty either needs something added to give it all some perspective, or you need to get forward & get it out of the shot.