Snow bridge.

[Mad Aussie]

Since you've asked ...

Taking shots of snow is a tough job until you've had some experience with it. Neither shot is exposed close to right I'm afraid. The 1st is under-exposed (looks grey) and 2nd is over-exposed (looks too white and has lost all detail in the snow). Switching to manual and trying different apertures would have helped. Either that or if you are using something like Aperture Priority, then learning to use Exposure Compensation if your camera has it would have been another choice.

Also, you didn't get the focus sharp on either. Auto focus? If so, the falling snow probably caught it's attention/ Manually focusing would have been the go here.

Composition wise I like the first one a little but would like to have seen more space above the bridge. I'd probably have removed the grasses or positioned myself so they didn't go so high in the frame too. Apart from that I like.

The 2nd one doesn't appeal to me composition wise. The branch is indeed a distraction, and there's no real detail that really grabs my eye in this one.

Hope some of that is helpful.

[Marko]

The second shot has better exposure than the first but it's overexposed.
MA gives an excellent critique here and i agree with all of it.
Not sure if you want tips or links on exposure - but it's my pleasure to provide them (as well as a link on using the histogram)
Just let us know. Thx! M

[Mel23]

I actually had the picture in colour, but edited it to black and white. I thought it would look better. This was actually at a location where it rarely snows and I go here about twice a year. I would LOVE to try get this picture again, but I'm thinking it was a once in a lifetime thing. Too bad their dog got out, I would've been able to concentrate on getting a better picture if she didn't :P Thanks for the tips and comments though!!