Blender does very realistic natural environments, physically that is. I feel the light is not quite right, perhaps more shadows under the denser trees, and stronger shadows from the trees, given the light position. This is probably just a balance between ambient, direct and radiosity light that needs adjusting. I suspect that your work is somewhat ignored because it is so realistic most people assume it is just a photograph. The tree positions create a good composition, but the background is a little too to my eye and this separates it from the foreground. But these are small niggles. Nice work.

Thanks for the critique! Very helpful ideas and suggestion. Most of the final lighting was done in PS. The light setup I used in Blender produced a very evenly lit scene, so I used PS and brushed on some light to separate the trees and add a little depth. I also added a little orange to the highlights for some additional contrast and mood. It's good to know that it looks rather photo-realistic, but it would be nice to get a few more comments too. :)

More comments are always nice so, here's mine.
I looked at it full size before reading your narrative. I thought it was a photo but after looking for a while decided something was not quite real about it. Then I read the narrative.

I think the background is a little too blurred, or perhaps gaussian blur rather than lens blur? (Not sure it would make a big difference.) There is something about the light on the trees. In the real world there is always reflected light that creates a bit of shine and or variation that seems to be missing on these.

The shapes of the snow drifts along with the highlights and shadows are fantastically realistic to my eyes. The detail of the trees is also quite impressive. Very photo realistic over all.