Originally Posted by tegan
With the first shot, you did well with what you had in composing the shot.
Although not under your control, clouds give the sky more depth in sunrise or sunset situation. The filter for this situation is a graduated neutral density filter which keeps the sky colour as is, and allows you to give more exposure to the dark areas below the horizon. The result is more detail in the foreground and that contributes to depth in the scene as well. Compositionally the problem is no centre of interest. That means that there should be some item in the photo that draws the immediate attention of the viewer. If you had waited, it might have been possible to catch a small piece of the sun but that also presents other photographic problems such as flare.
Tegan