Welcome, Ned!
Both are competent images (a compliment).
By "competent" I mean they are shot and processed with no apparent faults, indicating you knew what you were doing. Highlights are reasonably well controlled, shadows are not opened too much. Composition is classical. The sun was caught just at the right moment. Anything else that I (or others) might not like seems like a result of your deliberate choice, ie, not by mistake or ignorance, thus shall be respected as such (well, at least by me).
Well done for the intro post and let's see some more.
P.S. Love your signature!