Cape Neddick (Nubble) Lighthouse - 2015

This is almost a re-do of a post from 2010 of the Cape Neddick Lighthouse in Maine.  Here is the original post.  This is not quite the same photo, but is the same angle - an just more of the overall environment.  My re-do won't go far in a competition, it has one fatal flaw.  The white color off of the house and side of the light is almost too much.  Every photo should have some white - in this case that's too much.
But this effort was to learn a few things.  I wanted to see if the removal of larger objects would negatively impact what tone compression does to a photo.  I've removed small objects before, but in this one I'm going for what I would call more major restoration of an area.
I also have a version of what Nikon would do with my image.  I quit doing the Nikon JPG thing some time ago, this could be interesting.
So here is the original Nikon image:

From the histogram, you can see what Nikon is doing to this image.  Centering the light.  I'm certainly not complaining or criticizing.  Just another reason to do what we do.
Below is the RAW image.  On this image, I've pointed out some distractions that really should be removed.  And this is the point of this exercise.
On the left side in the center, there is a power line and some other equipment.  The power line runs to the house.  To me that is distracting.  There is also a small flood light just to the right of the light tower.  That too has to go.  And lastly, there is an orange lobster trap buoy just above the rocks in the water.  If the buoy was in the middle of the waterway, I might leave it, but the subject is the lighthouse.  It must go as well.  This is the RAW image - with the objects to be removed listed.

Here you can really tell what Nikon did when processing the RAW image to a JPG.  The process moved the light to the left and highlighter the reds to match the greens and blues.

So I removed the items called out above - and this is what I have.

I tried different methods, both erasing with the application filling in the areas and clone stamping.  I went with the clone stamping on all removals.  Seems to take a little more time but works out better when done.
Next I put this image through the HDR processing.  In the original posting, I was going through my 'grunge' phase.  Now I favor a bit more realistic scene and that's what I'm aiming for now.  Here is the image with tone compression.

My overall light is spread out across the colors - and I like that.  There are no tell tale halos that I need to address, and I like that more.
My final touches are to add a bit more green to the vegetation, darken the sky a bit and warm the image up just a bit.  And this would be the final image:

From the original Nikon JPG, I have better detail in the rocks close to the water and better greens on the hill.  

And finally, with my size for the blog and signature block: