Choosing a subject:

According to me, the choice of subject is probably the single most important aspect of natural photography. I have found that often some really beautiful scenery, when photographed fail to capture the beauty that was otherwise present in the actual place. What I could make out of it is that unlike photography of well-defined subjects, the subject in natural photography is generally dispersed in the whole scenery that the photographer might have tried to capture. This reduces the liveliness of the photograph. Probably that's why you'll see among natural photographs, sunsets and sunrises are the most popular among the appreciators. That's because you have a subject there, which is the sun! So what I would try to follow is to choose a good subject for photographing in nature, and put the rest of the scenery in background. If the subject is big then it's alright, else for smaller subjects manual focusing at or close to the subject renders good effect. The subject need not be an important part of the thing/scenery you want to capture. It can in fact be a very trivial part of the scenery. Like a pebble or a small wild flower or a dew drop. While you put the greater picture and scenery in the background.