to crop or not to crop?

Thanks. I liked the movement of the clouds, but was not sure how much of them, and of the rocks at the bottom I should keep. It seems to me if I crop it, I lose some of the 'bigness' of the image; however, everything I read says I should crop out bottom/top. Thought I would see what my photo community thinks.

When I am in a predicament like that, I keep and display multiple finished versions; it's not as if it is carved in stone that you must choose one and discard the rest.

Your original image is a tough one to decide just what to throw away; there are many interesting features and any crop is going to sacrifice some feature or other.

I really like the rocks immediately above the pool of water AND the water and it's reflections.

The triangle of blue sky at right and the (I guess it is part of the walkway) at lower center left form almost a perfect straight diagonal line that crosses through the center of the lower lighthouse window and I like that.

I would like to visit the scene and set up a tripod in exactly the same spot where you were standing; orient the camera the same; take the picture that you have and at least three more overlapping ones right of the original; and, create a landscape-oriented picture from the portrait-oriented photos; I don't so much think that your picture will benefit from cropping away interesting details; I think more "meat" to the right would pull the wonderful details you have into perfect placement.

We have a forum rule about editing someone's image without first receiving their permission. Unfortunately, when someone posts an image with a question, a first response is often to post an example. You know that expression "a picture is worth a thousand words". So before anyone else posts an example, I suggest we wait for some input from srmoment .   Thank you.

I didn't mean for anyone to delete their post but rather to wait to hear from the OP.   Caspa, to answer your question.......by adding the red box you altered the appearance of the original image so yes that could be seen as editing the image.  Also in order to do that you had to either take a screenshot or download the image.  

Pat
Nice photo. Some good points made. I like caspa's crop and also agree with BuckSkin's note, "I really like the rocks immediately above the pool of water" caspa also noted that taking photos at many angles, positions is a good idea. 
Of all the photos I take, 99.9% are cropped. It is rare that a photo would be only downsized with no cropping. I crop two ways:
1) use the crop tool on several photos keeping the same dimensions for all, but 
2) more usually I crop each photo individually in a way that suits the individual photo...what looks right to my eye. And then I will resized (say) for Facebook so they all have a common ling dimension of 2048 pixels. (Or whatever I choose.)

Clive   

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I am okay with revisions to this photo. (Sorry!...I should have stated that when I posted!)
Clive, I didn't even notice the person! Thanks for pointing that out and yes, you are right that the lighthouse is slightly distorted due to the angle I took it at.
I will have the opportunity to take the picture again, and will try some of the other suggestions.