This post is one of ten appearing in the series 10 Ways To Improve Your Landscape Photography. The majority of us are photographers because we want to share what we see and feel with others. The things that we see when we are in the field move us and make us want to capture some of that magic. At all times I think it's important to hang onto that thought and that feeling. To produce our best work we need to shoot what we love.
When shooting, be mindful of what it is that has moved you to take the shot. This will help guide the choices you make, in particular with composition. The magic of photography is taking that wonderful scene, or even just that intangible uplifting feeling of freedom that you sense, and translating it into a 2-dimensional image that people react to in hopefully a similar way.
Being mindful lets us draw on the experiences, learning and instinct to understand and work around the problems that occur in that "flattening" and time-stopping process. Shooting with little thought (or worse, "spray and pray") is unlikely to capture the emotion and the reaction you had to the scene. So be mindful.
Related to this I think is that often we're told something like "there's a great image right in front of you". Whilst a part of me understands this and that the world really is full of opportunity and wonder, we also need to realise that a great image is in many ways reflective of ourselves and how we feel. Yes, somebody else may be moved to make a great shot from the very place that you are standing, but if you don't experience a reaction you're not likely to.
That's not an excuse to be lazy; we should be exploring and trying things from different positions and perspectives and that's what that mantra is encouraging. But we shouldn't take it to heart and beat ourselves up if we're doing that and don't have an emotional reaction. Doing so makes it more like work than a creative expression of yourself.
Stay true to yourself, be mindful and constantly explore for the things that move you and you're on the right track to creating images that you and hopefully others will love.