Coursework so far

Over the weekend, I got my friend Shan to come down to the forest nearby my house. The plan was to spend a couple of hours there to do a few shoots for my coursework's initial shots. However, it began to rain very hard and so we were getting absolutely drenched, and I don't think my camera particularly fancied a shower either... Because my shot was meant to be a composition, keeping my camera in the same place without moving it was absolutely vital, however I couldn't do so as I had to quickly cover up my camera and put it away to avoid any damage to the equipment.

So, all in all I ended up with a quick rushed shot that wasn't in any way a composition, but I don't feel it turned out that bad. 

Here is the original, unedited photograph I took of my friend Shan. I find this photo quite interesting to look at, as her head is in a different position than where the brain is used to looking at - making it more subliminally interesting. However, I feel the background is too distracting as it is very colourful and there is a lot going on.
As this was only a twenty minute shoot (as opposed to the two hours it was going to be) I didn't have time to see what worked best such as changing the model's position, or moving some leaves around, perhaps changing the exposure... 

Here is my edited shot. I haven't yet finished it as I have decided to leave it for a couple of days to then take a new, fresh look at it. Using Photoshop, I took away the bright greens and reds of the leaves using Curves. I also made the fallen tree branches seem darker and damper by toggling the blue in the curves as well. I decided this was a good effect as it took the focus away from the background, without making it undecipherable - the viewer of the image instantly knows she's in a forest. 

There is a twig in front of the right knee which I noticed the day after editing the image. This twig doesn't look good and removing it will further improve this photo. 

Here is the same picture, but without the twig. I feel it improves the picture a lot. I removed the twig using the Clone Stamp tool and the Smudge tool. 

Here is my contact sheet for my photo shoot. I had originally planned to do a different kind of image - hence why the model is positioned differently in some of them and I am in the shots. 

The first few images are all under and over exposed, so they helped guide me to the correct exposure which I eventually managed to achieve.

My image style has been influenced by fine-art photographer, Brooke Shaden. I contacted Shaden and asked her a few questions, and less than a week later she contacted me back with links to helpful websites and gave me a few helpful pointers.

Here is the e-mail (you will have to click to enlarge):

Additional information:
Subject:
The subject I used for this shoot was my friend Shan.
Costume:
I wanted Shan to wear a nice, simple dress that wasn't too colourful but then again not too dark. The reason I wanted her to wear this was because I didn't want my subject to blend in too much with her surroundings, but nor did I want her to stand out so much she took away the focus from the them.

Location:

Situated in a small forest near my house.

Equipment:
Nikon D5100
Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6
Giottos 3 tripod
Lighting:
Natural lighting was used.
Risk Assessment: 
As Shan was barefoot we had to ensure there was no broken glass or any form of sharp object where she was treading in order to prevent any injuries.
Because Shan was wearing a summer dress on a cold and wet winter day, we had to ensure that we had plenty of warm clothes (jumper, dry socks and shoes etc) to make sure she kept warm and wasn't at risk of getting ill.