mazor,
it's a combination of everything you and simon surmised. it was late, i did shoot cloudy, but i processed raw and did some warming with the nik filters. i've loaded hundreds of plugins in the last seven years (and spent a small fortune). ultimately, the complete pro nik have proved the most useful. i experiment with an idea and filters until i get what i either want or discover. their viveza and silver efex are very nice, but you can basically do everything with the other set. there's also a book on using them, which i've bought.
http://www.amazon.com/Official-Soft...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231889410&sr=8-1
that said, it's always a mixture of idea (most important) and experimentation. and today i looked at a big, retrospective book on eggleston (just out) and i realized he works much closer in and with fragments. this business of the distance at which a particular photographer shoots interests me very much. it's like we have to find 'our' perfect distance.
thanks, don. as a writer i told myself, 'not having a style is okay. hopefully, lots of different things will attract different people.' and with photography it's been the same. i'm too restless and get bored easily, so i can't mine one particular field. the big drawback of this is not being easily identified. people pay big bucks to get a piece of an artist and his/her vision, but it has to be specific and brandable.
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp