Bernard....
I like much your review, is a "credo" of the field photographers, coverall in the referring to [span style=\'font-size:11pt;line-height:100%\']"you never walk alone", literally[/span][/b].
You use some tool, like google earth, to select the landscapes previously, or study the form del land with a map of levels, thus to define your final route and to anticipate images that you are going to take and the best position del sun for them?
Or simply find the landscape at the moment in which you happen through there, and to hope that the conditions are the suitable ones for the shot?