pier

Including the entire pier is obviously why you have the format you have. You have timed the picture to capture the lights on the full length of the pier which increases the impact. The waves are really sharp focus and the reflection of the sky colours makes a huge contribution to the overall impact.

I think two things may improve this overall - crop the sky by between 1/3 and 1/2 - this keeps the clouds which add interest and balance the waves but moves the pier from being on the midline.

The second area that might have improved it is the lights on the pier at this end are just hovering on the line where the sky colour changes behind them - changing your elevation slightly when taking the picture could have just dropped them against the darker background. Changing that now would involve skilled editing and I don't think it is a big enough distraction to be worth doing that.

Overall this is a lovely photograph and your portfolio would benefit from having some closer images of the pier structure and even some reportage style images of the activity on the pier to compliment it. Well done on this shot.