#2 This was with my 40D and 17-40mm f4. I've only ever tried stitching photos to make a pano once before so this is my second attempt. They were never taken with the intention of being stitched but it seemed to work out quite well.
1 for me is a great idea with great lines but between the oof foreground and centred tree the composition could be stronger. For me this picture would be really nice with i) much longer depth so that the foreground lines lead into the tree, ii) tree on the extreme right(shift left) , iii) landscape with lots of negative space on the left.
2 is nice but not as nice features as 1. The composition is pretty good but the features for me are just not interesting enough. It needs fog or clouds or a moon and less foreground to ehance the interests for me.
I might retry #1 with my 17-40 sometime, that one was taken with the 70-200 f4 IS handheld and was a bit limiting for DOF. I like your ideas though.
#2 was never really supposed to be a pano but I just can't get over how good photoshop is at stitching photos together. There is a fence running to the left and I'm thinking that may make a nice foreground element. Maybe even a night photo here could look ok?
