Scaly
by illywikiniky

Comment by e301:
Very little sense of light and shade within the actual subject - it all seems lit the same, which almost by definition removes any great sensation of texture. The reflection of the sunlight also seems a bit odd. If you were to photograph this from an angle, so that the sun is not directly behind you, you might find that the unevenness of the surface is emphasised more by the light slanting across it. This way, the very small areas of shade that are created by that slanting light, and that are the things we see as 'texture', are not visible.

Scaly
by illywikiniky

Comment by soccerdad:
Colors are great. I might have pointed the camera straight up the tree to aid composition a bit. More depth of field would also help this, as that great blue sky is really a flat field and could support more detail up front.