Ruined a Potentially Good HDR

Breezeway HDR at the Perry Mansion

My buddy and his wife invited us on a road trip to Terlingua Texas. A great little ghost town in the Big Bend area of Texas. We stayed at place called Upstairs at the Mansion (it's the old Perry Mansion) and while I was walking around, I noticed a great location in the breezeway to shoot an HDR - so I did and here's the result.

It's not a terrible picture, it has color, a chair, a cat, some good details. And a big boring white spot right in the middle of the frame.

The picture was made at 7:30CST in the morning, looking ESE, after both the morning blue and golden hours had long passed.

But it could have been a much better photograph.

How could I have made a better photograph?

By not being lazy.

We were there for 3 days. I could have easily shot during either the morning or evening blue/golden hours and come away with a vastly different photograph. The only thing that would likely be missing is the cat...