Sometimes, you're shooting a place that is close to where you live, that feels easily reachable, and the photo either reproducible or even possible to improve upon. But that one time you're there may actually be your only opportunity to shoot the photo in its current form without you even knowing!
This morning, I headed to the Eighteen Mile Creek mouth on Lake Erie and found the location so different than what I remembered from October 2011 when the photo of the rock after sunset was taken.
Last year, the beach on the left of the rock was way short of reaching into this photo, and then on the right there was this nice cove that I enjoyed very much. I don't really have a good photo of it other than the one on the left, but it shows it ok - the tiny strip on the horizon.
This morning, the beach from the left extended way further and would have been between the rock and the horizon all the way through this photo. And the semi circular beach on the right? Gone all together. Maybe it will come back when the water is lower, maybe it will not. We will see. I'm glad I got my rock photo last year.