growing up in the advertising game i was taught to think in thirds.
Divide the picture into either 3 vertical or 3 horizontal boxes in your head and look at what you have in each segment, and find a way to balance them out so each has something in it, not necessarilly as profound as in the other two.
Quirk your snow scene does this, with the path running through the left hand third , leading the eye to the mountain top in the centre third. As i think Tech said earlier, you are already framing pictures really well, way to go sir.
In a lot of good pictures you will often find the main source of the shot is either in he left or right verical segment for example, with something to balance or contrast it in the other two thirds.
Hope that makes sense, i wil try to find some examples tonight and post them if i can.