Composition is always a tricky and subtle thing, and in a genre where you do not have control of the physical placement of the elements, like landscape photography, it can be particularly difficult. If composition is something you struggle with in your landscape images, check out this helpful video tutorial that will share some useful advice sure to help you improve your photos.
Coming to you from Christian Irmler - Landscape Photography, this awesome video tutorial offers some useful advice for improving your landscape image compositions. If you struggle with composition, consider tossing a telephoto zoom lens in your bag. Although landscape photographers normally default to using a wide angle lens, the difficulty is that with such a large angle of view, you have to deal with finding balance for a lot of elements in the frame. Using a zoom lens to simplify the composition can make the process easier and the final product stronger. And you don't need a wide aperture option; an f/4 zoom will do just fine. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Irmler.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."
Too much is made about understanding composition, because possibly there is nothing that can be understood about it. You point the camera until the image appeals to you, if it doesn't work move forward or back. Walk through an art gallery, and try to imagine a compositional principle that would explain what you see. I can't.