Do you always get the shot you want?

More and more often I know exactly what kind of shot I want, so I go out to take photos with that in my mind. Sometimes, just like this Monday, I do not get the result I am after.
I wanted to take a photo of a ring bouy with an island in the background. You could get it at Howth harbor! Unfortunately, because of the lights, the lens I have, the distracting rocks and pier, I could not get what I had imagined. And getting "something" just wasn't satisfying me.

On the other side of the pier, you can see the Howth Lighthouse, which is a nice building with flower pots hanging on the wall outside and a bright red door. It was shortly after sunset with dark clouds in the sky and strong wind. (Gosh, it was cold!)
I set up the tripod and my camera with the ultra wide angle Sigma 10-20mm lens.

I thought it was a good opportunity to take a long exposure shot with the B+W ND1000 filter. I love this filter, my best ever! It was getting darker and darker, at ISO100 and f8 and 4 minutes of shutter speed I was still getting underexposed, way too dark photos.
I tried with an ND4 filter and higher ISO, wider aperture as well, but I just wasn't happy.

So, I decided to go for a HDR image. I took one of the same building years ago, when I only had a hybrid camera which only could shot to JPG. That HDR image was processed from 3 JPGs from the very same file.
But this time I did a better job! I set up my camera (without filters), composed the image. Then changed my camera to Continuous shooting mode and bracketing of +- 2 stops. Then I walked home with 3 RAW files in my bag. Here is the result:

I have been to this place thousand times but I never realised that there was a spot, where I could see the building from a completely different angle.
I used the Canon 18-55mm kit lens @ 24mm with an ND4 filter to get this shot. At ISO100 and f9, the sutter speed was 18 seconds, thus the blurred clouds. I converted the image to mono afterwards.

On my way home I had two thoughts on my mind.
1) It is very annoying when people walk into your photo, even though you leave room for them to bypass.
2) You might not get what you wanted, but there must be another opportunity to get something nice instead.