I like this picture, because I like this tree. The color, sharpness, everything except size has been left alone. I did no digital retouching on this photo.
The one other thing I like about this is that I can go back and re-take it. I was there at noon, middle of summer, very hot, and very humid. Hence the haze in the background. Also, there were no filters on the camera itself.
I was still working on my "framing" project, and the trees on the outsides of the shot are the frame for the large on in the center. I think the color came out nice, and it is a sharp image.
Brad, you captured the spirit of the tree well...arching high over the quiet cemetary. The framing works very well, although it might be nice to see a shot with the camera slightly panned to the left so that the main tree was less central. You already noted the main difficulty with this image, which is that it was shot at high noon. I wonder what this would look like with cool early morning light, or especially at that warm late afternoon light. What is especially nice is that there are no people or cars or other distractors...it highlights the quiet sense of eternal rest. Lovely to look at.