Reviving this ead, and not to detract from the on-doing discussions, but do you have any idea how this photographer achieves his tonal values?
http://www.marktucker.com/indexport.html
The images presented in this website are very normal. As long as you take care exposing your shots, I don't see any difficulties in achieving such tones.
I guessed you have not seen a real masterpiece from photographers such as Yousuf Karsh, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, etc... These are the images that really make me say "wow!"