Words about angles or whatever haha

One time, when I was younger, a bmx photographer that I've always looked up to told me. "Start with and angle that would make an interesting photo without the subject in it. A lot of the time those are the best ones"
A post Andy Day recently made about the relevance of the dslr reminded me of this.
In the post and example photo was labeled "and architecture photo with a twist" showing and interesting part of a building with an athlete posed in an aesthetically pleasing spot.
A lot of the time I'm kind of framing my photos looking more at the scene and trying to make it and the rider work together. In my opinion with extreme sports the environment is as much the subject as the athlete themselves.
A little ramble but I've always thought this approach was a cool way to go about it.