I believe your post processing made the second picture quite a bit better. The clarity of the log brings out its time-worn beauty. And, the depth of field is very good. Unfortunately, the rain/mist doesn’t have enough definition to tell what it is. The obvious problem with picture is too much blank, blue rain/sky in the center. The length of the branch forces you to raise the lens to capture all of it. That leaves almost half of the picture with no meaning. (I would be tempted to break off the branch half way up. Some may think this makes it unnatural, but it’s no different than holding a tree branch out of the way to get a good angle for a shot.) However, if you could have somehow used a ladder or top of a car/truck bed and taken the picture from a higher angle, you might have been able to see less of the sky and bring in more or the ground. One last thing is that the various angles are not complimentary. The dominant branch, the rest of the log, the ground and the slope of the ridge of the hill look too random and disorganized. From all that you said, it’s obvious that you worked hard on the picture and seriously considered composition resulting a lot of good elements.
