Still trying to figure this B&W thing out...

C&C is most welcome...

Well that's a pretty good try

Cheers Ray

thanks

any suggestions to improve things?

I might try an almost square crop, leaving just a bit of dark space to the right of the cone (about the same as you have on the left). I might also try a mild vignetting (or burning in) to help tone down the needles near the edges of the shot and draw the eye toward the cone.

I agree with JBurnett about the crop. It would also eliminate the "bulls-eye" thing, (which isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but generally helps compositionally).
IMO you've seen and captured a very nice piece of our natural world.
Good work.
Charlie

thanks for the comments! I will try them out and see what happens.