I have been thinking about shooting "famous" v.s. shooting "unknown" too. I have somewhat a similar observasion as yours, but I have a little different inclusion for myself.
When I go to a national part I know it's easy to shoot just another "postcard" as million people have done. It seems no much fun about it. So I ask myself "can I do it differently, and make my shots a bit unique?" I have to admit it's tough. But I feel I have got a few ok shots and am still trying.
I see your photos shown here are technically challenging. The first one would be a challenge for me because of the high contrast. They require solid fundamentals, and rooms for errors are small.
BTW, did you use spot meter when shooting these?