I am far from a purist but one thing I do not do often, is manipulate the scene, I don't engineer it by moving things into a better position, I work with the cards dealt. There are lots of interesting things when you look closely enough.
Manipulating a scene should only happen when there's no much of an environment to explore with. Though truth be told, with a good photographer manipulating scene photos could be mind blowing, but nothing is as beautiful as a picture taking in it's natural and purest scene. These pictures are beautiful....and it's nice getting the picture of the bug in the lavender.
I like to search around for the shot, rather than move stuff to make the shot - it might make some of my photos crappier :D
I agree