Beautiful Gray

Hi,
I found this picture through the Critique me! #3 and decided to give it a shot.
And boy, I was not dissapointed.
So you asked for some critique and here it is:

First: Vision.
This is hard to decide for me because there are captures that make you instantly fall in love with them while otheres need a closer, longer look to make you realize how beautiful they really are.
This is one of the later.
At first it may look a little pale and flat. A quick glance and you already judged it. But that was a mistake. Looking closer you see the wonderful play of sharpness and haze. The actual depth, created from a very chary DoF and Bokeh becomes clear and you discover the real and great plasticity.

Originality is alsways a thing... Everything has been made somehow somewhere already. But this particular way of presenting the subject, not only showing it to the viewer but leading him to it is great.

Technique is top-notch, nothing much to say here. You know what you are doing and you are doing it good.

Now for the Impact.
This is hard too, i'm struggeling a bit here. Again there is the first impression which is, especially compared to the second one, rather weak.
But then again realizing just how much the image "grows" upon looking at it for a while is a really strong impact.
So i'm torn.
It definitely could be tweaked to make a stronger first impression but then again the contrast to the second one would greatly suffer and that would just make this picture one among many. I think i prefer it this way.
Nonetheless depending on the situation this could also be a dissadvantage. You said you where thinking about submitting it into a contest. Depending on the way choices are made there (and on the total number of sumbissions) it is not unlikely this will score a lot lower than it deserves, because people may judge too hastely based on the first impression alone.

To sum it up:
Maybe not too suited for contests and "showing off", great piece of photography, in more than one way.

Thanks for reading