I do like that better. Not exactly sure where the magic crop would be, but I don't feel like I'm being smothered by the tree but standing under/next to it.
I really like the B&W processing in the first pic and the cropping in the second. The second seems to give a little more interest to the foreground and as a whole more in tune with the title. So the second in B&W i think would make for a great shot.
I would try keeping the same width and crop roughly 25% of the height and all off the top. This would remove some of the tree and balance the shot a little....... maybe.