the other day i was driving from work (on west side highway in nyc) and the weather was stunning! red skies with orange sun with few sparse clouds!
i really really wished i had my big camera, and planned a good location, because that was the day to take a great photo.
any way to have predicted this? seems like a few-times-a-year occurrence.
Sadly, often these situations are far too localized to predict, especially the most amazing shots that you can get are rare opportunities that can last for a matter of minutes and be completely impossible to predict.
The best way to prepare is to either keep your camera with you or move quickly to get it when you can. I've had several photos that I wish I could have gotten that I just didn't have my gear with me and I have a few others where I've ended up getting a non-ideal angle simply because the situation would be completely gone by the time I got in position for an ideal shot. (Like a shot I have of frozen dew covering the grass and trees with fog coming off the lake behind it. 2 minutes later the dew had melted and the fog was mostly gone, so I was only able to get a picture from the back door of the cabin while standing in my pajamas.)
You can try to specifically go looking for stuff. In general sun up and sun down tend to be good times and right after rain when it's still humid and warming enough for evaporation to make low amounts of fog can be really good times to go looking for stuff, but it's still up to chance if you find something or not. The trick is to find a nice rich angular light with just the right amount of vapor but not so much that it clouds the image.
The only way to take advantage of these situations is to always go with the camera around your neck. Joking aside, I always look the websites of Weather to see the conditions and know when rising and setting sun. Also try to keep a photo diary with environmental conditions where did the photos, photographic equipment ...
