I've since learned that good pictures usually require good planning.  Or, at the very least, good planning will significantly increase your chances for success.

Now, when I want to take pictures, I first decide where I'm going to go and when.  If I don't already know the area, I make an effort to scout around during the mid-day hours – or, if I don’t have the chance to scout, I try to find other pictures of the area and a map.  I look for attractive places with something that I can make the center of focus.  I try to divide the places I want to shoot into morning locations and evening locations depending on how the light will fall.  Sometimes I have first, second, and even third options in mind in case something unexpected happens or in case the conditions just aren't right.

That has worked out pretty well for me.  Often, I'm able to bag the pictures I expected.  This picture of The Eiffel Tower was planned for quite a while.  I just needed the right opportunity and conditions.

Same with this one of Notre Dame.

I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted these picture from Calais to go.  Both were planned in advance.  I almost got it right.

Sometimes, whether through bad luck or my own incompetence, I just don’t get anything at all.  That was the case on a 3 day trip to Burgundy where these were the best that I could manage.

Sometimes, though, if I keep an open mind and keep searching, I stumble across something that really works out for me.  This picture of the Eiffel tower was taken after I had already taken my planned pictures and I was walking down the steps looking for bonus shots.  This composition had never struck me before – perhaps because there are usually masses of people going up and down these stairs.  The shapes are good.  The light was right.  And, it’s an unusual composition that includes a beautiful, although now quite pedestrian, landmark.  I think you’ve probably seen hundreds of pictures of the Eiffel Tower before.  But, I bet you’ve never seen one quite like this.

One thing that is so pleasing to me about this shot is that it’s a bold but simple composition made in an area that is really quite chaotic.  I think there must be tens of thousands of people visiting the Eiffel Tower every day.  You can’t avoid other tourists.  They’re everywhere.  But, in this picture, the viewer is all alone – even though it’s shot from a place that was obviously meant to accommodate people.  You don’t get that very often in Paris.

Sometimes the conditions will change and you end up with something unexpected.  I had gone to Calais hoping to get something interesting with these posts on the beach during the “golden hour”.  But, just as the light was supposed to be getting good, a big cloud front rolled in and I was stuck in overcast, drab conditions.  I was actually walking back to the car to go home after the sun had set when the clouds broke, I got a little bit of light and some color, and I nabbed these two keepers.

Getting something with the posts was always my hope, but I hadn’t though of adding the texture in the sand until it almost jumped up and bit me in the nose.

The close-up shot seems to be the more popular photo, but my favorite (and one of my all-time favorites) is the sunset picture.  What can I say?  I like color.