Portrait photographers will often ask me what it’s like to film a set with no people, no subject.

And it took me many years to realize the right answer to this, it’s that there is a human subject there, it's just implied:

The subject is You. The viewer!

Maybe you just stepped out for a moment.

When “homeowners” are shoved into the composition, more often than not, I find that it becomes distracting.

The argument in favor of having people in the shot, enjoying the landscape, is that it helps people realize the possibilities of the space. As if you couldn’t figure out what you might do with a dining table. (Operations? Is it at-home medical procedures and surgeries? Is that what that what the dining table is there for? I have no idea, I give up, just tell me!)

But I find adding people does just the opposite. Before, the possibilities were abstract, limitless; and now there’s a family here doing very real, concrete things. You, the viewer, were otherwise inserting yourself into that people-less picture, imagining what it would be like to walk down that path or eat at that table, maybe even what it would be like to live there! But now you’re thinking what it must be like for those people to live there. Those particular people.

Why does she have on a jacket when everyone else is wearing t-shirts? Is there something wrong with her arms? And why do they have her serving a bowl of oranges alongside glasses of lemonade? Is that all they're going to eat? That's not very filling and sure is a lot of citrus…

Suddenly, I'm having a blast judging all the people in the photo and what they are doing, and not paying one bit of attention to the landscape. Which is why, except on rare occasions, I prefer to just keep the people out entirely.

Save for you, of course. You are welcome to into my landscape photos anytime. In fact, stay a while!

Can I get you anything? Oranges maybe? Lemons? Oranges and lemons?

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Read HERE about something else I prefer to keep out of my photos.

(Spoiler, it's dog shit)