All comments welcome
I usually like to shoot from the shadows into brighter backgrounds, ie to draw the eye, but I have it reversed this time. Bothered me the whole time I was editing. 
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
0.6 sec at f/22, 17mm Tilt-Shift, ISO 100.
Doug, this is a lovely image. It seems a bit flat to me. I opened the image in Photohop, and indeed most of the histogram is on the left side. A simple levels adjustment to increase the brightness makes it pop more. Like so:
Doug I like the concept of the image, the tree roots leading to the forest makes for a very compelling wide-angle composition. Something about the processing seems off to me, it has too much of an HDR processing look to it, it lacks contrast, looks flat, and the shadows could be deeper and richer. It also feels a bit too crunchy/oversharpened to me especially in the background trees. Maybe it’s just my personal taste, but this image feels too HDR-ish for me, due to the lack of contrast and too much shadow detail.
Well…I do like this image a lot, especially the first version. I like the flattened and somehow understated mood, and the composition is perfect. The more I look at it, the more I like it…
Doug, I love the composition of this photo. I think that even though you reversed your usual dark foreground/light background scheme, this root system certainly does a great job of leading the eye. I see what Tony and Ed are saying about the HDR look, but mostly in the trees. I think your original treatment of the foreground suits the dark mood of the forest, but the shadows in the trees are too light. I could also see a crop off the right to balance the space between the roots and frame edges left and right, but I see why you didn’t do that because the tree in the URC keeps the sky out of the corner.
Thank you all for your thoughtful commentary. I put a selective glow on the background, but I think I overdid it, giving that HDR look…which I personally don’t care much for either. I like the foreground roots brighter. It was contrary to the dark-light transition I try and achieve usually, so I probably tried to switch the native brightness of the photo around. But I can see that leaving the foreground bright…isn’t always a death nell. 
TX!
