A matter of perspective and taking your time
The most important thing involved in taking a good picture is framing a good shot in the first place.
Although photo editing can do a lot of things to enhance a good picture and even help you salvage a poor picture in some cases, the software cannot magically take a properly framed picture for you.
In this case spending a few extra seconds framing your picture and visualizing what you want to capture will go a long way towards helping you to have a good time reviewing that picture in the years that follow.
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These two pictures come from two different journals!
The picture on the left is from Jim Oliver's Eastern Canada journal while the picture on the right comes from my Round Lake Huron journal.
Both are good pictures. Notice that they are also taken from slightly different positions. Sometimes while reading the journals of other people who have crossed through the same area you will notice similar pictures taken from slightly different starting positions.
It is interesting to compare these pictures and notice how the emphasis of the picture changes based on simple things like the starting point, the weather or how the picture has been edited.
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These pictures come from two different journals.
The picture on the left is from Jay Singer's Clockwise around Lake Erie: Nice Folks journal.
Both pictures on the right are from my Round Lake Erie journal. The top one is the original picture. The bottom picture is the final result after editing.
In my opinion both of my pictures are completely eclipsed by the excellent photo that Jay captured. I am not concerned about image quality from the sense of a better camera or something like that.
Pay attention to the "positioning" of the picture. I just took a quick snapshot without any concern about the bridge railing etc. The consequence of this is that I had to work around the railing when I "processed" my picture later.
Jay went a little more to the west on the bridge and found an excellent position to easily capture a beautiful picture of the Toledo downtown.
What's interesting is that I edited my picture to come to something similar BEFORE I ever saw his picture.
This is an excellent example of a time when a few more seconds of thought would have resulted in a much nicer picture.
The only editing performed on Jay's picture was to perform a resize to fit this combined photo. Jay reports that all he did was do a straight copy from his camera. Obviously taking the time upfront to take a great picture results in better results and less time trying to correct your mistakes later.
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These three pictures show the Sandusky Clock flower garden.
The picture on the left came from Jay Singer's Clockwise Around Lake Erie: Nice folks journal. The pictures on the right come from my Round Lake Erie journal. The top picture is the original while the bottom picture has been edited.
I like all three. This combined picture is intended to show how different a similar picture can be when taken from slightly different starting points.