Damn right the sky had some intensity!

Wow, I wonder what contributed to the atmosphere to create those variations in the clouds and tones of the sky.

it's mostly the tone mapping, there was a bit of reddish color in the sky, but the post processing amplify all those little colors and details in the shadows and in the highlights. It's done by taking multiple exposure of the same subject and by varying the level of exposition on each one. then they all merge into a High Dynamic Range image which is than tone mapped to by displayable.

that's why the branches on the very top of the image, just left of the sun looks like that, they have been moved by the wind between the shots.

Ah, I see that. So this is more of a photomanipulation. It's very nice though, I love it.

there's little manipulation, it's just a way to display an image that contain too much/many colors levels and different light intensity to be displayed on a monitor, so, details a removed and the result is that some others details come out in a much visible way

I must say, this is nicely executed.

Tres bien, Tiger! Je suis d'accord, le ciel est tres 'intense'. Continue avec ça! ^-^