Frank - I prefer the latest crop. Somehow I find the balance between the trees and the buildings works better in it.
I will throw in a bit of a contrary opinion here. That being I think the first image works better for me. All that greenery as some one put it gives greater depth to the landscape and a landscape scale and context to that little settlement. The first makes me feel like I am on a tall mountain looking down from a great height and I get a sense of the vast forested region that dwarfs the village, where as the second just feels like a shot zoomed in and it loses a bit of the impact for me.
Lots of potential in the image Frank.
If you are cropping to show the viewer more of what is happening in the village it might be better bringing the “heart” of the village closer to the centre. It is always better avoiding cutting people, cars, buildings, etc. in half.
Enhancing the image just a bit removes the haziness. Cameras see more than the eye and tend to be very sensitive to pick up any haze over longer distances.
I took the liberty in doing this to show you what I mean. Hope you don’t mind.
Thank you Andre. I see the view you are thinking about. Perhaps there was a bit of haze being as I don't recall the greens being that vivid.
By the way, please feel free to play with any of the images I post. I only ask that you tell us what you did to achieve the changes, particularly for some of the newer folks trying to learn post processing cause and effect. Thanks!