Is horizon curves enough to make this picture interesting?

[Saulius]

Hi
Here is my amateur attempt to practice landscape photography. I have had creatively disappointing landscape shooting trip. I came here an hour before the dawn and was expecting to make some night shots with star trails. The sky in this landscape had to be filled with star trails. Unexpectedly  I discovered, that snow somehow works as a reflector and all night shots where with heavily overexposed sky and snow (!). Though the sky was not very much starry, but no trails where seen in it. It was my very first attempt to do night shots in winter.  
This is the shot that I did right before the dawn and is one of few that I kept. Just for my learning... does the composition of horizon lines and trees silhouettes makes it interesting?  
I would appreciate any kind of critique. Thanks

[fredjeang]

Hi
Here is my amateur attempt to practice landscape photography. I have had creatively disappointing landscape shooting trip. I came here an hour before the dawn and was expecting to make some night shots with star trails. The sky in this landscape had to be filled with star trails. Unexpectedly  I discovered, that snow somehow works as a reflector and all night shots where with heavily overexposed sky and snow (!). Though the sky was not very much starry, but no trails where seen in it. It was my very first attempt to do night shots in winter.  
This is the shot that I did right before the dawn and is one of few that I kept. Just for my learning... does the composition of horizon lines and trees silhouettes makes it interesting?  
I would appreciate any kind of critique. Thanks

Hi Saulius.

First and for most, do not discourage. Failures are normal and part of the learning.
I've been away from photography during many years and I'm having big difficulties in street photography.
You should see my pics...very low rate of keepers. But step by step.

I find this picture interesting.
First as it is, there is an atmosphere that I personaly like, from an emotional point.

Second, there are possibilities to do a little bit of post production in this image, in order to strengthen it.
Post production work is an important step.
For example, in the rocks, there is a redish (warm) tone in the shade that could be recover, and the rocks will take a kind of "burn" or "flamed" aspect.
Also, this pic could work well in black and white.
So it is trying some ways from the same image.

To me, the composition is fine.

about night shots, there is a link here: http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html
I do not know the quality of the contents, I had this link in my favorites but never used it. Who knows, it might be helpfull.

Cheers,

Fred.

[Saulius]

Fred,
thanks for the link. I never came across it before.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I believe one hour before dawn was still too late for this image,
since the upcoming daylight raised the contrast between your foreground
and the sky too much.
So - getting up even earlier might have helped with this.

EDIT:
I took the freedom to do some editing.
I first converted to ProPhoto RGB colorspace, 16 bit mode, in the end I converted back to 8bit sRGB.
I also worked in LAB mode.
Then I edited with an inverted b/w conversion layer in luminance mode, levels and curves and some other quirks.
There still is color banding since I worked with the jpeg.

I don't want to claim its perfect, just wanted to show there might be much more in your original RAW file than you might have expected ...
[attachment=21195:IMGP8978_edit.jpg]