Granite Serenity +repost

I don't think it looks "too HDR" at all. My only nit in that regard is that the reflection seems brighter than the sky. Interesting comp, it draws the eye right toward the sky!

Love the texture in the rocks. I'd consider cropping out most of the sky as there is very little detail in the large dark cloud and it competes with the fg. The long reach of the lh rocks towards a sliver of the horizon is a beautiful and the contrast between the hard stones and soft light is great. Very nice image

First, Love the shot!

I think you did quite well on the blend and no it does not look like bad HDR. I give it a A-.

Very subtle dodging, burning and selective contrasting/sharpening might take it to an A+. But don't be hard on yourself, I don't give A+'s away easily!

This doesn't look too HDR to me. You did a good job on the blend.

Neale, this is an intriguing composition to me, leading to the main area of interest for me in the sky. I would not have figured out the HDR technique. I appreciate the natural look. The subsurface structures in the foreground add a lot in my opinion.

Peter

Fabulous shot, Neale. Love your composition with the design of the fg rock and water shapes. The blend looks pretty good to me, certainly not over-hdr'd. Perhaps more contrast in the rocks would be nice to bring out the textures a little more, and a larger version would have been great to better appreciate those details.

Thanks for your, as always, useful and thoughtful comments everyone.
I've been reluctant to use TK's "triple play" actions till now, as at first glance they seemed a little complex, and anyway I've still had a lot to learn using some of the other actions he provides (Thanks TK, great work!) and photoshop generally.
But I read through the tutorial again and have given it a try here in this re-post. I'd love to hear any thoughts on how I went... I think I've addressed some of Mark and Davids points.

Ok, my repost looked a bit dark I thought, so I reworked it including reducing level in the bright water near the centre and also reducing the haloing I think.

Looks great!

The second repost looks very nice, Neale. Keep persisting with the TK masks, I'm sure you'll get the hang of them and find them extremely useful.