smallest DSLR?

[photographicsafaris]

Surfy, the difference between your shots is the lighting, not the camera or photographer specifically.
Your shot has an obvious lack of light, was shot at noon with overhead cloud cover giving a blue tint to the shot, whilst the other shot has bundles of sunlight and shot at dusk with warm angled lighting.

Then there are polarising filters and a multitude of other options which the camera doesnt control.
Worryingly you could have selected AdobeRGB, shot in jpg and not sRGB which will have a worse colour palate when viewed on a computer screen, but more dynamic colours when printed. (it is marginal and difficult to control)

On the camera front each brand offers a different take on colour representation, obviously theres some variation by brand, Olympus out the camera Jpeg's are awesome and I feel punchy but spot on, kind of like Astia film. Fujis's jpegs have deep rich tones, Sonys border on the soft gentle subtle colours, Canon and Nikon each have their own spin, also down to the effect on highlights caused by the number of aperture blades.
In short its doubtful that the camera is the differentiator, but there is an element to your photography. if you are shooting in RAW then the various editing software makes the difference.

There is also editing.

Personally I prefer the dynamic clouds that your shot has, and other than the really boring lighting you could tweak it to create the drama.
Adjust the white balance slightly towards the yellow and Magenta side. Increase the saturation. Darken the sky's, and adjust the levels to give the colour a bit more depth, and hey presto, all told - a flat image revitalised.

Also your shot would look great with a peppercorn grain effect to it

regards