I'm going to assume that you want an honest opinion undiluted with attaboys to make you feel better.
If not stop reading now.
But first of all, let me say that photography is very hard. It is difficult to take the impression that your eye
and mind create and capture that on a sensor. Your eye can integrate over distance and a high dynamic range, constantly changing sensitivity, depth of field and focus. Meanwhile your mind is adding an overlay of emotional content and memory. None of this can be captured by your camera sensor; that's what makes it hard.
For your interest, I include a link to a picture of the same type I did that completely failed (one failure among thousands of failures). This was magic in my mind and a complete loss after I captured it.
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/3849/hiddenshackdsc746103057lp4.jpg
Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Image Date: 2008:05:04
12:48:50
Focal Length: 27.0mm
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO equiv: 400
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: program (Auto)
You have pretty much chosen
the most difficult scene and the most impossible time to render a good image with a digital slr. At 1 in the afternoon the sun is directly overhead, making deep dark shadows and bright sun-lit spots where the foliage allows. This creates an image that your eye and mind can process but is much too large a dynamic range for a digital sensor. This needed to be shot earlier or later in the day when the sun is lower and the light more diffuse.
The most crucial defect is the lack of any obvious points of interest. I don't know what you were considering as the point of interest in the picture; my eye just roams around looking for something to focus on. Before taking any picture you need to pick out the elements that are important and then arrange them in the viewfinder so that there is some dynamic relationship, using dof and focus to create the image you want people to see.
The most prominent area in the image (yellow) has nothing defined in it.
The entire right hand side (red) is just a higgledy-piggledy of bushes with nothing to hold one's eye.
Last, and most minor, is that there is no signal about a real horizontal in the image. That tree lying down may indeed be tilted but it is the only signal about horizontal we get - and it looks off.
I can't resist saying that your choice of a f stop and speed were quite sensible and the higher iso would probably have worked just fine.
The recipe for this scene is different viewpoint, selective focus, later or earlier in the day and tripod. A tripod is enough of a pain to make each shot more important and make you think through what and why you are doing everything.
