How do you convey far away and near and or familiar? I think that I would chose a place that was easy to recognize, like an urban setting with a skyscraper sky line. That would get the familiar point across right away, even if it wasn't a place that the viewer had been themselves. It would be easy to see it and conjure images of the city the viewer lives in etc. It would be a very easy setting to be comfortable with. On the other hand, I would use a very obscure, isolated place to convey the idea of a faraway place, maybe like a snow filled tundra with hardly any life depicted in it. Not only would this work to make the place seem unfamiliar and faraway, I think it would also show a sense of desolation. But honestly, I don't know how to photograph it, if it is a place that is undisturbed by humans, I would not want to be the one who tainted it.