Photo Critique Please

Hi community - I rarely get any constructive feedback, so I'd love to know your thoughts on this image. #1 (on the left below) was rejected for exposure problems. I tend to prefer darker images in general so I'm probably not objective! I went back and took another look at it, since I took this photo a couple of years ago, and I edited it again #2 (on the right below), so please let me know what you think!