As I mentioned when I posted this shot, one of the things that Jason wanted to cover during his recent one-to-one training was 'seeing creatively'. As an exercise, we took four different shots of one of the groynes on Fleetwood beach. In my first shot it was used as a frame, while in this one it was used as a backdrop. Of the other two shots, one uses the groyne as a leading line, while the other focusses on some of the small scale detail in the wood.

As an exercise, especially if you find a subject a bit overwhelming at first, breaking a shot down in this way really helps to focus your attention: just list the various ways in which a particular element could appear within a shot, and then shoot them all. Some will work better than others, but the more you practice the easier it gets: in terms of thinking about which shots to take, and in finding ones that will produce the most interesting results.