To HDR - or not HDR?

Its all in personal preference. I love the first and the second. I'm a big fan of HDR, even if it is over the top. I would try HDR one more time, but instead of doing the surrealistic look, just do something a little more photorealistic and see which one looks better. I like them both for different reasons. I love the glow on the fence in the HDR. Looks good. Keep shooting!

HDR has a place but it is overused. in this case i would say its too much....but its all a matter of personal preference.

kinda likin the hdr, but pic two was nicer. need a different example.

I find HDR overused and/or the result is cheesy-looking. Personally, I dislike it.

If done subtly it can enhance an image, I suppose, but I would argue your two examples perfectly illustrate how the effect can be more often detrimental.

HDR inflames the passions in the same ilk as selective-color. But sometimes it works well. I have found that it rarely works well when pure and pressed far. I usually end up selectively merging some of the underlying shots to lessen or even totally eliminate the HDR effect in portions of the final image. You have to do this if you have people close-up in the shot.
As for the 2 images I like the glow on the fence in the first but not much else - so I'd just merge that area into #2.

I concur, no HDR please.

Please....No HDR.

I love HDR, when you can't tell that it's HDR. In this case, the easybake oven look just doesn't do it for me. I'd say go with the second one.