Gavin,
Part of the fun of it for me is to discover, share and move on.
I thought I always wanted to go to Cuba before it gets over run and over photographed. For much, I think I'm too late. However, on my last trip to Serbia in September, I came to the realization that that could be my Cuba sine I travel there with open eyes and wonder.
I'm neither Serbian in heritage nor Orthodox. My connection is that my hometown where I've always lived has a Serbian community and I was curious about there white church with its own cemetery and their celebration of Christmas in January with vollys of shot gun blasts.
I started years ago photographing the community and this church, the first Serbian Orthodox Church in the western hemisphere. I didn't ever have a clue that it would ever lead to me traveling to Serbia but it did.
I now have many friends there and will head back again since there's still much for me to photograph, people, places, monasteries, icons, ruins. Everywhere, I've been treated as royalty and the doors have been opened to my lens to share with all.
It's all a matter of being open and following your gut instincts. Likewise, there are many places off the beaten path or even along the way to the major and over exploited sites that are still out there.
Sure, I used to go to Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower (Corkscrew) Canyon back in the 1980s when you had to repel and simply needed a permit from the local office. Last year in Yosemite, I found a neat roadside waterfall passed by hundreds daily on their way to Tenaya.
Sometimes it's a matter of walking a few hundred more feet, stopping along the way, getting there early, late normal eating times and you'll find it. The first key is to be out there, the other is to get away from the herds, and finally creating a new vision or POV.
It takes practice and going back again and again, trying new tools and techniques and seeing with a fresh mind.
I recently returned to Rhyolite and Goldfield, Nev. Rhyolite now has fences and warning signs. I first photographed there 40 years ago and visited before that. I still saw something new. Same for Goldfield. I went there to see and photograph the National Junk Car Forest (world's largest). I'll go back and shoot a night pano there and light it all up.
The thing for me today is to use my skills to craft a new vision. One way is to do a different take. Another is to photograph the people photographing the icons. For neat pix of Yosemite, look at the work of Ansel Adams assistant Ted Orland. His humerous photos are a nice treatment of Yosemite that shows the human side, not the imaginary wilderness of the main valley.
While you are getting the classics and the icons, look for the new and obtuse and you'll create your own niche.