I discovered the manual mode did improve things markedly. I'll have to try long exposure times, the ones I did were (handheld, my tripod is not at work) around 1.5 seconds, f/8 from a 90mm lens, and looked a little blown out.
I set a custom white balance, will try and experiment more.
Thanks gang to all who have helped and set me straight!
Cheers!
-------------------- Storms arise and eclipse the sun, the march of kings has begun.