The bloke that did some of the photos in Burl's books used to go to a site for days just to catch the right light. He'd first suss out what time of day he would need to be there and then go back a few times to assess the light. Occassionally he would end up waiting a season before returning to a site, because the Summer light was too harsh, say.

I now try and time trips to high crosses to be there around midday. Then you can get both the est and west sides of the cross lit up nicely in one visit :-)

I still think you need 'the eye' to take a good picture regularly. Anyone can be in the right place at the right time occasionally, but to do it consistently ain't easy. I certainly can't manage it! There are several sites I went to repeatedly to try to get a good photo for my book. With one I never managed it!

I travel to a lot of sites in a day and don't have time to wait around for the best light. Naturally I'll try and go back somewhere if I think I need to do so.

My photo-motto - Never expect more than 1 in 25 images to be good ones.