Afterthoughts

Why is it–at least in my case–that some of my better images on a particular day come as afterthoughts. Maybe I’ve finished with what I thought was the main subject of the day and am leaving the scene when my eye sees something and, on a whim, I frame and press the shutter.

More often than I would expect, these “afterthoughts” turn out to be better than those frames I captured when I was really “trying”. Could it be that the mind is more creative when it is relaxed, open, and spontaneous? If so, how to get the mind into that place throughout the entire day’s shooting?