@Jens, @David_Wallace , thanks so much for your critiques!
Was the dynamic range really too large for only one exposure to be sufficient?
It wasn’t primarily for dynamic range, but because the longer exposure had smoother water, and the shorter exposure had a better sky (not overexposed).
I went back to the image and used the technique explained in the video by Steve Arnold along the edge. Interestingly, the original frames both had a lightened edge along the right flank of the mountain.
I reduced the cyans with a separate color saturation layer.
I left the mountains otherwise as-is because I wanted to emphasize the largest mountain, South Sister, just a little bit.
I quite like your crop. As an alternative, you could try something like 16:9:
I tried that too, but I think it makes the image look a little bottom heavy. Still undecided.
BTW, I just did a quick research about the art festival. That looks like a lot of fun. Did you exhibit your images there?
Yes, I had a booth there. Sales were good! Funny thing, getting ready for this, I was worried about not having any work from Central Oregon where Bend is located. I got really lucky with this shoot, and have a lot more images, including some panos, so I’m on my way to fix this!