Put people in your shot - The Red Deer River Canoe Trip.

Josh and Eric Svendsen on the bank of the Red Deer River with Klaus.
I have been going through old photographs which I took some 42 years ago.  At the time I had no idea what I was doing and shot whatever I fancied.  I had photos of things that enthralled me; parts of the Drumheller Badlands, the mountains of Alberta, and even museum displays.  All of them were of interest at the moment but are of limited value now.  Besides not being very good, they all had the characteristic of being empty of people.

Just anybody wouldn't be good enough either.  I have lots of photos of people that I either never knew or completely forgot about.  They could have been taken by any random person; it was like looking at a Facebook image that has no personal connection.  It was sometime later that I discovered the value of including people I know in the photos.  That in itself may not be enough, because some of those you will forget - be sure to incorporate those you really care about.  That way, in 10 or 20 years, you will have a photo that has a lot more value.

Take, for instance, the above picture.  In 2004 my son, Joshua, and I canoed the Red Deer River from Drumheller to Dinosaur Provincial Park.  It was a five day journey with both good and bad moments, but it certainly was a memorable one.  I got some nice shots off of that part of the world.  The ones I like the most though are the ones that have people in them.

I keep a collection of photos for a variety of purposes and can't always use ones that include posing humans.  So, I often will take two pictures.  The first will be of the scene without anyone there and the second will include important people to me.  I may even occasionally invite someone else to step behind the camera so I can get in the shot too.

If you are going to do this be sure to take the photograph of the scene first then invite the people in.  If you do it the reverse way you have to hustle everyone out of there to get your shot.  Instead of inviting people to come and have their photo taken you are telling them to get out of the way.  It is always better to invite to come rather than to encourage to leave.

The above photo has another valuable asset; the dog.  That is Dell's dog, Klaus.  Both Dell and Klaus are no longer with us and the fact I have a photo of his dog is an awesome reminder of just how amazing his beast was.  One day I will do a blog on him.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen

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