thanks for the feed back guys. wow 4 more comments than i expected. lol. I honestly thought it would get no response.

caleb, thanks for the suggestion. I made the mistake of not shooting in raw in my last trip which i'll never make again! Raw from now on for me since I've started reading on post shot re-exposing and combining exposures. etc.

Gary, yeah dimly lit subjects make for the best night exposures. they pick up light as the shutter remains open.

Greg, thanks

danic, I wouldn't even know where to beging HDRing a scene like this. It was very dimmly lit so I'm with u, an HDR wouldn't probably work for this.

Thanks guys.