Hi Wayne,
This is a serious photo… not so much for the content but more for the equipment that you have made it with. Shooting on a 6 x 17cm camera using Velvia film is true old school. The problem with working in this format though, is that it can be really unforgiving and you do not get to adjust your colour, exposure and contrast when you get home with your transperency film! What you shoot is what you get!
Now, I am not sure if it was the film or the scan but that sky is rather intense and it is dominating the key subject in the picture; that gum tree. Given the chance I would be pulling back on the sky while increasing the local contrast in the tree.
Now, there is one easy way of doing this and that it to drop the image into an HDR program. It is not a purest approach but then again, it does bring out some of beauty in the tree. I guess it becomes one of those questions about whether you want to be a pure artist and work within the medium you have chosen or whether you are keen to explore new avenues with the help of technology.
When you consider that many early photographers regularly experimented with solarisation, tonings and a host of other analogue techniques, I think you are ok to keep exploring!
Cheers, Anthony
Image Doctor's edited version
