Another good reason for including people in the picture, (besides giving human interest to the image) is to give a sense of scale to the pictures / sculpture you are shooting. Often that is the only way to have a feeling for the size of the work of art.. It is surprising how many times you will think an painting or sculpture is quite large (or small) and after putting a person in the picture, it brings the object's size into focus (no pun intended !).
That is great advice for landscape pictures as well. I love to put a person in a very small portion of the picture for scale. It's even better when they aren't facing the camera and it helps if they have on a red or yellow sweater or are holding an umbrella.
You're right Joe. When you are using a person for scale or to add a human element, sometimes facing away from the camera doesn't let the person compete with the main subject of the landscape or architecture. And the primary color of clothing adds impact to an otherwise basically green landscape or sometimes bland architectural color .Sometimes you have to take what you get though !
I have a Canon Pro 1 now almost 4 years old that I like because if its really nice little 28-200 L lens (SLR equivalent). But if I could find something that had IS and less noise above ISO 100, I might be interested in replacing it, because I really like having a small camera on trips for backup. I have had camera failure (in film days) on two trips where it was impossible to get repair or replacement. That spooked me, but luckily, I was schlepping a second SLR body on both trips, which saved me. I'll check out the Leica D-lux-4. I have a couple of friends who are crazy about the Pano LX3. have you looked at it ?
You are right Stu - when you go to remote places and / or are on your feet all day, you have to make compromises and work-a-rounds with what you are comfortable with, or exhaustion kicks in and equipment becomes a burden, and picture taking becomes no fun. No matter what lens decisions you make, you always come home with some great pictures. What you miss, becomes a non-issue. For those who haven't been in this position, all I can say is that many of us have had to learn the hard way !
