It's an interesting dynamic.

I spent 25 years telling people to "get out of my photos" in landscapes. Then something clicked in 2008 and I became all about people (to the point of running a Wedding/Event/Portrait photography business for a decade or so:).

I'll still take landscape photos, and I enjoy them, and some of them are decent... but I still get most excited when I capture a particular expression on a person these days. Go figure!

> For example, my mother would complain about my travel photos that didn't contain people, or would look for things like whether the people looked happy. She couldn't care less about the rule of thirds, bokeh or dramatic lighting.

Heh, this is one thing I regret about my past photos — I have plenty of travel photos, but very few with myself in them.

And while I know my composition and lighting fundamentals, my photos will rarely be on par with someone with the luxury to wait for the right moment, or something from a postcard or the best of Flickr or 500px.

I'm also rarely in my travel photos, but that's more because I don't like looking at myself in photos.

Now, but will you think the same in 20 or 30 years?

I'm already at the half century mark, and while I do go through my older photos occasionally, I am still happiest when looking at photos of our dogs.

Who knows if that will change in 20 or 30 years.

Art is about what the creator adds. There are already better photos of almost every urban and natural scene you could travel to. Download them and you can enjoy the place live and also have great pics to share and save.

What you bring to the scene is you and your relationships with the people and things there. That's your marginal advantage from your photos.

You'll get better photos by taking candids than posing portraits everywhere though.

While I generally agree with what you're saying, I will say that candids are not necessarily better than posing portraits. That's a very subjective thing.

There are some cultures that prefer the posed portraits over candids.