After posting my critique, I took another look at the image and realized that perhaps a Levels adjustment to darken some of the midtones would help. I like the effect of moving the midtone slider to the right a bit, to about 0.86; it darkens the building a bit, improving its contrast with the sky. Give it a try and see what you think.
Greetings from the Critique Club And welcome to DPChallenge!
The message This photo does capture the extreme height and interesting shape of this famous building. And getting over a thousand feet in focus certainly qualifies as Deep Depth of Field. Still, the image lacks impact, so doesn't really hold my interest for very long.
Creative choices The lighting here shows the true colors of the tower, but is rather bland. I wonder how it would look at a different time of day, like sunrise or sunset when the light is warmer and more oblique. I like the contrast that the tree gives, but wish there was a little more tree to make it a more integral part of the composition. I also find the tips of the spires a bit distracting in this view. I like the perspective, and the repeating textures--especially how the same texture has such a different feel at the bottom, middle, and top of the building.
Technical aspects Exposure and color are great. Focus seems fuzzy, probably due to compression artifacts (DPC allows 150K files; it's generally a good idea to use the largest compression that keeps the size under that limit). I think the tower could use some sharpening (but it would need to be selective sharpening since the tree already seems somewhat oversharpened).
Maybe it's my eyes but I don't see a lot of sharp details of the tree leaves or of the building (Sears Tower?). I see quite a bit of compression that hinders them. Color and composition are good starts and the bottom could be cropped just a bit to eliminate that odd bit sticking out of the building in the lower right.
There appears to have been some problem with camera shake or focus. Sears can be a challenge to shoot right (I've tried often). I like the blues in this picture.
This is illustrating deep depth of field. It's kind of a mundane view, sadly. The tree really detracts from the simplicity a shot like this should have.
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