I really like both. I prefer the first though.
First: Love the effect and the feel of the banner. The pics used work. My only major criticism would be to play with the render (maybe up the contrast and put a low opacity white/black gradient on it) to make it flow more. And, this is a personal nitpick, but I'm a fan of having the images face inwards, so I'd flip the two outer pics (feel free to ignore this petty complaint haha). 8/10.
Second: I think the additional red makes the render flow more. I'd probably ditch the text bars b/c they're not really necessary, and the font isn't that great. Still good though. 7.7/10