Local Church Statuary

Yesterday, it was nice enough here to get outside and go for a walk with the camera (40°F!). So, while we were out walking downtown, I took a few pictures of this statue of Mary outside one of the local churches:

The original images were shot with my Sony NEX-6, using the 55-210mm telephoto lens. I used the auto exposure bracketing, which gave me three exposures (0, minus 3, and plus 3) which I double-tonemapped in Photomatix. I then sent the resulting image through Aftershot Pro. I like how the image has a gradual shift from dark to light moving across the image. 

Here is single-tonemapped edition, prior to the bw edits: 

While nice, it lacks the 'drama' that I see in the black and white version, with the gradual dark/light shift across the image.