Old Schoolhouse

I found this old schoolhouse on a back road a few years ago, October of 2015.  Not sure I could find it again.  But it is in Michigan, that much I know for sure.  There was a large drainage ditch next to the road, followed by a small rise of debris in the path to the building.  As a result, I couldn't use the viewfinder.  I had to hold the camera above my head and hope for the best.  I have a lot of (blind) shots.  The framing on most could be said to be interesting.  
This was taken with the D90 through the 18-200 lens set to 40 mm focal length.  1/50 of a second, f/25, ISO 200 Aperture Priority.

I like the autumn colors, the orange of the leaves and the color of the weathered roof.  I get the added benefit of some good wood grain which is a personal favorite.  I will suffer with the tree in the front.
In the original image, there was visual junk everywhere.  Back in 2015 my only tool to remove unsightly distractions was to use a clone stamp in Elements.  I played with this image for a while before giving up.
This is the original image.

There were four distractions I need to work on removing.  On the right wall, there is a white tube that is a wire marker.  Just off center right, there is a small tree growing up through the white/gray window filling.  From the lower left, there is a thick horizontal branch that is probably the main objection.  In the upper left, there are a few stray branches the are just irritating.
In Photoshop, I used the fill function set to content aware.  But to use that function you had to use the lasso tool and circle the objects to remove.  I used the mouse, I used the tablet.  The software did the job, but there was a lot more effort involved than I'm used to.  I like easier. So my next effort was with On One's healing tool.  That was much faster.  Just use a brush to highlight the area to clean up, and presto.  That takes care of the overall image.
For my contrasting, even though it is no longer supported by Google, I'm still a big fan of Google's NIK package.  I use the HDR effect module.  In this case I used one of my favorite presets that really over-sharpens and over contrasts.  But instead of going with the total effect, I cut the opacity to 50%.  That was enough to bring out the clouds and the wood grain.  It doesn't look overly altered/butchered.