I think if he toned them back a bit he would lose any effect that the HDR/tonemapping had on the images. In truth, they're in direct bright sunlight and even a single exposure would have captured MOST of what we see here, so in the end I think the effect he has achieved (while maybe a bit much) is a certain style and is essentially fine as it is.
All that said, subject doesn't feel that interesting to me for the most part. Second one is kinda cool... maybe tighten up the comp by cropping a bit of the sky.
I swear no one seems to listen to me.
I didn't say you couldn't do better, I simply said that given what you had there wasn't much value to "backing it off" as it would basically just knock you back pretty close to what you would have gotten with a single exposure. Which, really, is pretty damned close to what you had anyway.
head->desk.
the sky is rather boring. go shoot these again, but on a cloudy day. Itll make a huge difference in the photos.