Inspiring travel photographer

Hi Drew -- I'm new here to. I'm not a professional, but I've taken a LOT of online classes on composition, and I have some thoughts on your photos that may help you.

To begin with, I really like your pictures and think they have great potential, but I think they could be enhanced if you help the viewer a little bit more by emphasizing what your subject is a little more effectively. In the first image, for example, Is the subject the frozen river, the little hut, or the buildings in the background? Try to find a way to eliminate or cut out the information that is irrelevant to your subject, and fill more of the frame with elements directly pertaining to your subject.

Your third picture has an obvious subject with the orange-lit building, but maybe you could have cropped the bottom edge a little higher to avoid the roof of the car and the noisy street lights. They're a little distracting, but the orange-lit building with the foggy roof is a great subject.

The fourth image is great, too (but remember to rotate it for the viewer). That one has a very clear subject. My only comment on it would be: why would you crop through the light starburst on the right side? It would have been nicely complimentary to the one on the left.

Last suggestion for you kind of ties into the first about an obvious subject: for every element in the frame, try to separate it from everything else. This can be difficult with cityscapes, and may require you to move around a LOT to find the right perspective, but it is possible. To illustrate what I mean by separating elements, here are 2 pictures I took in Prague. The first one has the lamp overlapping the archway, and the second has it completely separated. This eliminates ambiguity where there shouldn't be any, and makes your picture stronger.

Hope this help. Good luck in Tahiti! That sounds like an amazing trip!