The advice was good.
Don't you feel yourself that the second version has a lot more impact now, Jonathan? I do. The texture of the snow sticking to this fence post comes out so much more nicely, and I really like your POV and DOF (ha, a chance to play with these two very funny sounding abbreaviations, heehee ).
Corinna, I post here because the advice received is always helpful.
It's sometimes difficult to be critical of your own work, so the advice of more contrast to me was important. It was a quick fix, and I agree it is a better image now that it was previously.