Photo tips, anyone?

Landscape photography is just not my thing. It does nothing for me. Because I live in the Kansas, the flattest, most backdrop boring state, landscape photography is just not my thing. It does nothing for me. NADA. If I lived somewhere with mountains or palm trees, my opinion would likely be different. But since our assignment this past week has been to photograph landscapes, I had no other choice but to take photos of grass and wheat and stuff. Fun times. My teach suggested we travel out of the city a bit to get to the good stuff, but I passed on the chance to shoot those "breathtaking" shots with 15-foot elevations (and a few cows for good measure).
Regardless of the uninspiring subject, I managed to walk away with a few great tips for shooting landscapes and general outdoor photography.
When shooting photographs outdoors, the prime time to take them is before 10 am, and after 4 pm. Low light conditions (meaning the position of the sun, not the actual amount of light) provides for excellent color, rich texture, and perfect shadows.
The first 2 photos were shot at about 8:30am. The last one was at about 7 pm.

Have you ever been on vacation, shot some beautiful sunsets, and returned home to find they weren't as beautiful as what you actually saw? Yeah, me too. The trick to shooting a great sunset is to manually underexpose them. Many times the camera will automatically try to correct the photo, or overexpose it to justify the darkness, which is what you don't want.

These were off our back deck the other night. Not the greatest of backdrops, but I think the point comes across, and it was good practice.

Should I keep sharing photos and tips? These tips were new to me, but maybe some of you already knew them. And if anyone can tell me something that I might not know, please share!