Thanks a lot for the nice detailed comment, Sue! I have some notices about this one. It was at f/4.5 and zoomed in at about 180mm. For emphasis of the center it is a too weak softening of the foreground, I guess. For that I should restrict my DoF even more, I think. But thanks a lot for the encouragement. I am glad if you find it OK this way.
Hello, Nick, I'm not sure that having the foreground out of focus is such a pity, since you wish to emphasize (I think) the leaves nestled in the arms of the tree's roots. You don't state what the f-stop was; perhaps a deeper depth of field could be attained, but I'm not certain it's warranted. It seems to do a good job as is, leading the eye through the details of the leaves and then the "stretch" marks on the left. I like the colors pretty well too. Cheers! SueO