Yesterday I was lost in the forest and had to walk 5 hours in stead of one.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Something when we get lost we find the best images.
I find the texture of the tree just mesmerizing. The greens are also very beautiful, i would frame the image a bit more elevated to reduce that foreground part with the pine needles, or reduce the highlights a bit on that area.
A great image @Ben_van_der_Sande, even if it made you walk some hours more than should.
Cheers
Ben, great work on creating such a strong arrangement of the trees, they are very nicely balanced. This is not always easy to do, it looks like you were very careful in choosing a shooting position. I love the texture of the trees and the hue of green that you used here too.
I agree with @João_Ferrão about cropping the bottom, and darkening the fallen dead tree. I think the fallen tree works as a framing element if you cropped and darkened it. I can also see an alternate version where you use a panoramic crop to eliminate the fallen tree, and make this more of an abstract image emphasizing the texture and pattern of the trees above.
+1 on @Ed_McGuirk idea of a abstract pano, so i downloaded it and did some tweaks, hope you dont mind.
Hope you like it,
Cheers
Hm, I am not sure about the pano crop as I find the foreground grounds the image really well. But I agree with @João_Ferrão and @Ed_McGuirk about reducing the highlight a little bit in that area. You and your trees, Ben. Always a pleasure to see. 
I actually really like the image as originally presented with dead pine at the base. It sort of conceptually reminds me of bracken or other fall foliage on the forest floor. The suggested crop works too.
I will note that there is a strange stripey artifact in the lower left corner.
Ben,
The forest background is awesome. Love the duo-colored scene. I think The pano crop certainly works to isolate just the forest - and might even be better getting in front/above the debris at the bottom. - At least as an alternative view, but not necessarily looking for a better photograph.
What works for me as you have presented is that the foreground tree is reasonably sharp and it’s pretty obvious your intention was to included it. And so I think you were successful in doing that. I would agree that perhaps dropping the luminosity a tiny bit would help too.
I hope those were an enjoyable 5hrs and you weren’t in a bad spot… Glad you made it out!
Lon
@João_Ferrão, @Michael_Schertzberg, @Adhika_Lie, @Lon_Overacker, @Ed_McGuirk,
Thank you all for your time and interesting comments.I am happy with my image and how I made it. But did try to make another solution with your comments by hand. And that gave also a satisfying result to me. I gave the light parts of the foreground a bit orange and the whole image a vignette to darken it a little. And then a small crop of course . I hope you all like it, I learned a lot again from this exercise .
Ben, your re-work is beautiful. Darkening the foreground helped bring more focus to the trees, but still grounds the frame. And, good heavens - lost for 5 hours! That actually sounds rather serious. Glad you found your way out.
