I'm a (relatively) new photographer and I'm having some problems with composition vs trying to take a picture of something. I think of all my weaknesses in photography, this is the biggest one. I can't find a middle ground between taking a picture of an interesting subject and making a nice picture in itself, in terms of composition and just "being nice to look at". It's not as bad when I have a person, because I can just use a low aperture and use the rule of thirds for framing, but especially when taking pics in nature, I just can't get any good results. I'll post a few pictures from a trip today, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or tips on how to do stuff differently.

ps. how do I focus on stuff properly? I use live view to manually focus with the touchscreen when I'm having trouble, but I like to avoid it. I'd use the focus ring on the lens but I just can't tell what is and isn't in focus through the viewfinder when doing that.