For a long time I resisted taking photographs. I prefered
to let the memory of the scene stay in my brain with no artificial
reminders. It is also now almost impossible to walk around any tourirst
site, because everyone is taking millions of pictures with their
digital cameras, and you don't want to get in their way.
I now of course sometimes take pictures. They do brigten up my blog. My technique is to take a picture when I see something I like, or some scene I can weave into a blog posting. I don't do any planning of the visual aspects.
At my mum's house there was a book called "Creative photography" by David Kilpatrick from Marks and Spencer publishing. The book was full of tips and techniques and frankly an eye opener. I will think more about foregrounds and backgrounds. I have even looked at the instructions of my camera so that I could learn about the zoom.