Making Cider....

I came across this scene while walking in the woods this morning. I fired off 5 exposures in 1-stop increments then used Photomatix to blend them. I ended up cropping the tree tops and sunlight so this version doesn't show the full range of the scene.

Any advice on what could be improved?

I don't know what it is about this shot. I want to like it, but I don't seem to and I'm having a tough time figuring out why. I'm really not sure, so I'm going to say that it's the compostion and the fact that the subject(s) are sitting flat and not standing out from the background. Maybe next time shoot them closer to the camera and put some bokeh on the woods or get the camera down low and shoot at a unique angle. Something to give the shot some compositional punch.

Processing-wise, as you stated you removed the range from the scene and you could have easily gone with a single exposure as presented. It is processed naturally which is something I am normally a fan of, but with no range to speak of in the shot it's hard to justify it's being in the HDR thread in the first place which is probably why you're not getting any comments.

Nice scene, but as J-Blake says, the front elements gets blended into the background. Have you tried to reduse the saturation on the background?