Are you a “landscape” photographer, or selfie taker? Inserting yourself in a pose into your own “landscape” photograph is a self absorbed trend (one of many) that has reared it’s ugly head in recent years since the narcissistic Instagram platform came along. It wasn’t a common trend before then!. I can only guess that this selfie trend is again motivated by “likes”, popularity and validation (Ho-hum, the usual suspects) or maybe the chance of nailing a lucrative multi-million dollar North Face Instagram contract is a motivation, I don’t know? But whatever the reasons for doing this, it is important to remember that the most respected landscape photographers of all time always put the landscape and the environment first in their photographs as the main subject and I can’t recall them including themselves in their own photographs. Because one thing is for certain, the landscape is far more relevant, more beautiful and popular than any single photographer will ever be. So with that in mind how about being a humble photographer by firstly paying respect to the landscape in your “landscape” photographs, instead of firstly paying tribute to yourselves with the misguided belief that it will somehow improve the photograph, because it rarely does. Of course some will argue that it adds a “sense of scale” and in some cases this is true, but in most cases, posing any human in a “landscape” composition is a distraction from the main subject matter (the landscape). This is not portrait photography! Come on, it’s about time we as photographers evolved beyond the cheesy cliche Instagram trends and looked to the future of photography with a little less narcissism and a lot more originality, creativity and respect for the subject matter and the genre. Ultimately it’s not for me to dictate what you do and how you do it and this is purely a personal observation, but surely it’s something worth considering in order to define your photography portfolio into something more substantial going forward? Whether you agree or disagree, it’s not always all about you right? Or is it? Food for thought….🤔.