so, looking at my photos.... i can't seem to focus on one thing so my photos end up with clutter. can you figure out what i was trying to concentrate on when taking this photo?

what is a good method to use to focus on "thee" thing i'm trying to capture.

To me that looks like a picture of the clouds, because they're in focus, but I think it should have been a picture of the balanced rocks. You could have possibly gotten it all in focus with either focus stacking or hyperfocal focusing, and the composition is a bit "noncommittal" you want to capture it all like you're seeing it but thats really difficult to pull off.

The only thing I can recommend is to really work an area, spend a half an hour or so taking photos of this spot, move around try several different compositions, and exposures, take a pano, get almost all rocks and no sky, then visa versa, then when you get home you'll have a nice selection to choose from and learn from what worked and what didn't.

I don't mean to sound critical, just trying to be helpful.

yep,it was the clouds. the clouds were amazing but my photos don't capture that. after i looked at the photos i noticed there is just so much other stuff in the photo. those rocks were interesting. i don't know why i just couldn't focus mentally on the subject matter

Most digitals offer a focus/metering with a half press on the shutter button. Do that then before pushing to take a photo shift the aim point to a corner third . Rule Of Thirds Not hard and fast rule, but worth a try. If the center of your photo was to the upper right the clouds would stand out.

butthead

Some cropping and processing in Lightroom would help.

If you are trying to make expressive landscape photos you should not expect in camera jpegs to suffice. You will need to take RAW images and do some post processing. Even very quick processing in Lightroom and the use of some presets can get you started.

The comments above about exposing for the sky are helpful but then you would be underexposing the foreground. With jpegs you make compromises, especially with a higher dynamic range of exposure. A crash course in Lightroom is easy enough, especially when you reach a frustration point with the basic camera exposures. Also, cropping can cover some composition problems.

another rework via Lightroom

I think that one is better with the foreground rocks included.