It is an iterative process. You see something interesting and snap it. Then you think: "Hmmm, this looks interesting but too busy, too much information... how do I simplify it?"
The three pictures I posted earlier in this thread were all made within a five-minute period. Actually, I started with the most abstract, then my eye was attracted to the skycrapers with the mountains and clouds in the background.
My wife and I have been visiting Vancouver every two or three years for 25 years now. It is is arguably the big city with the most beautiful setting in North America. But the downtown is looking increasingly like Hong Kong Central, with enormous, closely-spaced towers crowding out the view of the harbour and the mountains beyond. In the three years since our last visit, it seemed like at least a half dozen new ones had sprouted up. A local community activist complained to us that relatively new buildings were being torn down so that even taller ones could be constructed in their place and, as often happens in city centers where there is a surge of redevelopment, housing costs have increased dramatically. The attached photo provides a sense of the density. I made it from an isolated park—apparently unfamiliar even to many Vancouverites—which must be the only parcel of undeveloped land along the downtown waterfront.