I was aware of the (probable) effect it would have on Russ, I'll admit it, but I believe that both images are unbalanced - a lot of subject, texture, etc. on one side, and basically nothing on the other side. To me, the obvious answer was to combine them into one image and make a diptych of them. Sometimes you have to risk the lions... I trust Rob doesn't mind, and I did this very quickly (you'd probably want to make them both the same size), but I think they go well together.
Mike.
EDIT: Rob took offense to my illustration of how I saw his work, so I apologize to him and I've removed the image I created. This IS the User Critiques section and MOST people don't mind if someone plays with the work they've put up here, but apparently Rob does and he's also entitled to have an opinion.