Heber Valley and Mt. Timpanogos - Critique Please!! (slight BWW)

I'm a newbie here, love the site and am looking forward to getting back into photography. It's been a few years since I've focused on shooting a lot.

Help me to see where I could improve these photos. This first one is completely untouched except my name. The second one was only cropped slightly on the top and bottom.

Heber Valley from Timpanogos

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

hiya -- the first is really nice looking. technically spot-on. others may cite the lack of a subject, but the forms and tones of the mountains are enough of an engaging subject for me.

the goat is ok -- you've committed a cardinal sin by cropping its poor little feet though!

lookin' good -- keep it up.

You are truly blessed to have such 3 dimentional landscapes to work with. I live in 2 dimentional Florida. I visited your area a couple of years ago to compete in Ironman Utah, and fell in love with your mountains. To me, the mountains are the subject. I like the way my eyes have the horizontal lines of the distant mountains, as well as the diagonal lines of the mountainside in the foreground. I would like to see a more horizontal crop which would include more of the progressively fading mountains in the distance.
Thanks for reminding me of the beauty of Utah.
Barry

Picture #1: Very nice - the increasing haziness of the more distant mountains gives a clear sense of distance and perspective. My own subjective opinion is that it would be better if the lower right half of the photo were reduced in area so that it was maybe 1/3 of the distance, i.e., crop out a bit on the right and bottom. The "Golden Mean" and all that.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Edsarkiss, I didn't even think of the feet of the goat, I'll rework it and repost.

Thanks for the suggestions on the first photo, I'll see if I can crop the bottom and right side a little more and tweak it a little there too. You're helping me get better, it's much appreciated!

Trihokie, I'm glad you liked Utah. You (and anybody else) is welcome back anytime!!