Dallas isn't know for sweeping views... so I can relate to this topic. Instead of wide angle shots, I've been experimenting 50mm+. I guess this is similar to the concept of simplifying the shot to its most basic element.
For the past couple weeks it's been very hot & humid, skies are hazy and for the most part cloud-less. Backgrounds are hazy, skies are a grey/white/blue... Images look very washed out. These shots were taken about 30 miles from our house, converted to black & white to minimize the boring sky and also so the contrast good be boosted without looking overly artificial -
I've also found that night shots don't need dramatic skies! This area is about 20 minutes from our house -
And since I get home from work around 7:00 PM, lots & lots of practice with sunsets lately. Unfortunately all sorts of ugly things pollute the view towards the sunsets - like power lines, contruction cranes, roof tops... So, I've been experimenting with aiming into the sun and letting the foreround totally black-out such as this (about a month when we actually had clouds!):
But this still kinda bores me; looks like the other 9,999 shots I have like that! So I started playing with intentionally OOF'ing a shot:
I like those because it makes the sun HUGE. Wear sunglasses, or use a slow lens, or use ND filter when doing those. That last one was with a 300/2.8 - talking about seeing spots...!... Those OOF photo's led to some slight abstract shots:
Generally I have no idea what I'll shoot. I'll just walk around for abit, see how the light looks, the skies, etc. and hope something looks interesting. The nice about shooting things to close to home is that it's very easy to go back and re-shoot. The light may not be identical, but in general you can try again.