Jimmy,
The lighting in a photo of figured woods really changes what you see. The earlier post of that gun were with a bounced flash off the wall/ceiling. Even with the bounced flash, the lighting is intense and the camera computer balances the overall exposure based on a lot of things.

I've made a good attempt to replicate what I see in person, albeit even that changes substantially depending on lighting conditions. But this pic was shot a few minutes ago on my patio under a shade. The pic was then adjusted in Adobe for brightness and contrast just a little to show my skintone correctly. Not a lot of correction was required but just a bit to get it "real" looking. Still looks a bit contrasty to me, but close enough for gov't work.