If you stop and stare….(to borrow One Republic’s song title) at what you take for granted you will notice some amazing things, not just the play of light and shadows or the way seemingly random events take on an artistic form that can only be appreciated if you deliberately take notice of them – but also the hand of God in them.
Maybe we need to pause more often and notice.
Maybe we need to teach ourselves to see again; see the way different elements interact (positively and negatively) to form a composition that is just so much more real that the separate elements.
So where am I going with this? Good that you asked 
I finished reading the chapter on Learning to See in Ron Brinkmann’s book; The Art and Science of Digital Compositing 2ed, where Ron discusses the need to take notice of things that we see, why we see them that way and ultimately to apply that knowledge (beside purely appreciating it) to create a better and more realistic composite for a visual effect. I really like the quote that he starts the chapter off with:
“This is the most difficult thing of all, though it would seem the easiest; to see that which is before one’s eyes” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Here are some examples from a Flickr sight of a Friend of mine; Deon Who Disturbs the Water?
What stands out to me in this photo is it’s life, I mean it feels so real. If I could look at it and see nothing else then I could be there. It’s got so many things that we take for granted that give it that life; perspective, depth of field, light-shadows-reflections, occlusions and the mist. Try put together a visual effect like this and you’ll likely not think of may of the aspects that make this shot so real.
And sometimes it is the chaos and finding focus amongst all the chaos that makes it look real.
I think that from now on I’ll keep reminding myself to see, to look out for those things that make things real yet that I take for granted.
A topic close to my heart thanks. A good quick read.