Well, Yes and No

In response to Closeted Photo Fan's comment on Concrete Steps, Steel Railing, Glass, Marble, Wood, "...and leaves. Did you actually see all of this before you took the photo, or were you attracted to the composition first? Whichever, it is very nice...lonely but nice."

Interesting question. I've wondered this about other photographers. For me and the way I work right now, I think, the initial attraction is subconscious. It manifests in the conscious as, "Oh look at that color, shape, form, juxtaposition, expression, quality of light, something." Sometimes I just raise the camera and release the shutter. Sometimes I compose in the viewfinder, walk around, move up or down. Mostly, if my mind is calm, it's right there. I find if I'm working something too hard either the first try or two is what works. Even If I take several more variations in many cases none of them will work at all. The electrical charges on the sensor are raw material. I take them and build them into what I saw. Many times this is nothing more than some standard operations. Sometimes there is a lot more work involved. If it gets too involved I usually move on to another picture. I probably didn't see it well to begin with. While I work to get the complete picture as I see it in the viewfinder out in the print I've got no qualms about cropping to make a picture more powerful. I seem to stick usually with the same aspect ratio as the camera, currently 2X3. My next most used format is square, then 4X5, occasionally I'll cut something to a panorama type format. Again if I find myself dinking around with it too much I'll move on to something else. Probably not well seen.
In general I think my mind takes it all in. An aspect of the whole floats up to the conscious level (as bait?). I look, compose (?), and release the shutter. I have had too many incidences of serendipity. Too many "Cool, I didn't see that before and it works." experiences looking at my pictures to think that I'm just lucky or that the universe is rearranging itself just as I push the shutter release.