It's called HDR - High Dynamic Range - You take several photos of different exposures all else remaining the same. You then use software to paste only the mid-exposure areas form each photo into one photo that more accurately reflects the human experience, as the human eye can easily see highly more dynamic range than the best camera.
As with anything you, can over do it, however beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Though this gentleman goes a little over on density then I would, this photo could be entirely accurate with nothing fake about it. The rest of his photos on flickr are all HDR as well again a little over dense but not far off from my tastes and I believe him to be a very good photographer. Like real estate location, location, in photography composition, composition and his composition seems to be OK.
HDR is changing the face of photography and it will take a little time for tastes to adjust to it's capability - google HDR.