What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

If you measure spot, the camera will make sure that light is correct at the spot, not for the overall scene. So if you're using spot on that tree / sky scene above and you want the sky to look good - point at the sky, press shutter half way and the camera will measure and set focus there, then frame the shot and complete the shutter press to take the picture. Same if you want the trees to come out good, you point at the trees to measure and focus, then frame and shoot.

Hardly any camera, unless it has a HDR-setting, will manage to capture a bright sky and shady trees well on auto. If you shoot raw though, you can most likely recover one or the other when you post process the photo.

It basically comes down to the light being to different in the two areas and the cameras light range is too narrow to capture the whole thing.