One of the key things about making beautiful landscape images (or of any other subject) is about how much does the photographer observes and understands the subject.
The finest photographs are no less than an artistic impression of what the photographer feels, experiences and visualizes. Good, vibrant and distinct impressions are usually a result of keen observation and immersing with the subject and the atmosphere. Casual glances or a short presence at a location only results in snapshot that merely documents what you witness. But they rarely become an impressive work of art that stands apart from every other snapshot that may have been taken by thousands of people at the same location.
A dedicated photographer usually spends a lot of time observing, understanding and appreciating the subject and its surroundings. He or she may often come back again and again to the same location in search of different moods (often characterized by different weather in landscape images) and different perspectives (obtained by observing the subjects from multiple vantage points).
It is perhaps this dedication that made Ansel Adams’ images of Yosemite National Park (where he spent a good amount of his working life) stand out even after 70+ years and are imitated by thousands of photographers, despite the fact that Adam’s images were primarily monochrome.
The image below was made after spending three mornings of observing these hills through a variety of weather conditions. The perspectives and moods that were created on the first and second day were much different than what this one conveys. Please click on the image to see a larger version.
Camera Data: Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200 f/2.8 IS-I lens at 200mm, f/3.5 at 1/250sec, ISO 100