The shot from across the street looking on the yard might be suffering from a lens thats aligned to close to the sun. The flare pattern in the frame is a result of this. Flare will rob an image of contrast. It should get better as the sun swings away from the lens. Also the less sky you have in the image the better. A bright white sky can the dominate the exposure metering system and force underexposure the important part of the scene which is in relative darkness. The other shots of the 489 and drivers look pretty good.