an oxbow in the Colorado River.

Geologist here! Not quite an oxbow, this is just a meander in the river. Once the river has boken through, and cut off this bend, then it might turn into an oxbow lake. So just give it a few million years!

I don’t hate the composition or the use of a fisheye to get the whole seen, but I think you should focus less on the madness that is tonal compression and try something different - manually dodging and burning. Take it easy on the clarity slider bro.