He actually has toned his hdr back a lot, but as i learned from kmh when i did my second hdr. This was taken at a time of day when there was not enough to work with. You've got very strong highlights and very strong shadows, it just is very hard to make this look good at that time of day. Take this again during the morning or evening when the sun isn't this strong, but to me you did a pretty good job with what you had to work with.