Shooting landscape images can be a bit difficult in a certain sense sometimes, as you have no control over your subject or even the lighting, which can make it difficult to know what you want to say with an image and then to say it. This great video examines the topic of telling stories through one's landscape imagery.
Coming to you from Simon Baxter, this awesome video examines the importance of storytelling in landscape imagery. I think the genre often predisposes itself to a certain workflow in which the photographer makes a good composition and then seeks to maximize the technical quality of the image. And while there's nothing wrong with that, I think the process can often be taken further, as Baxter discusses here. At the very least, I know I'm guilty of seeking out the "wow" image without trying to create something that resonates on a deeper level with whatever mood or story I'm trying to convey, and while that might create a neat photo in the moment, I look back on them after some time and don't feel any particular connection to them like I do some others. I find it all starts with the foundations of each image, and when I consider the story before I shoot, I think my work is stronger.
Reminds me of going out with my dogs. They know to settle down when I setup the tripod but have a bad habit of investigating whatever it is I'm trying to photograph. I can't tell you how many times I've had to abandon a shot because one or the other trampled part of the composition. :-)
OMG! Cold! Can't do it! #wuss
That's okay. I can't go out if it's over 90-degrees. :-)