Thanks for the comments, Gents!
Brandt: I know the blacks are crushed, if not right on the edge of being so; did that deliberately because the bkg was distracting to my eye. Also played with cropping extensively and chose 1:1 to allow a focus on that wonderful curving trunk. While the histogram stretches from L*a*b* 0:0:0 to 99:1:1, I seem to have missed the mid-tone transitions although there are there in the histogram; it is an HDR blend. I may go back and rework it from a single frame and see if I can reacquire that connection. I was frustrated trying to find emphasis of the curving shape without the busy background taking over.
Jeremy: I realized that it could appeal to some stylistically, but I couldn't quite find the sweet spot for my eye. Not a lot of room at the right end, but maybe I could play on the black end with a tone curve or raise the exposure for the mid-tones, at least before I toss it and start from scratch again!
Once again, thanks for the objective comments.
