An emerging theme

I'm noticing a potential emerging theme in some of my photograpy. It can be called 'human element in the landscape'. It's similar to the old tool/trick called 'the human element to show scale'. But with a twist. To me the human element to show scale is typified, for instance, in photos of some huge sandstone arch in Utah with someone sitting at the base of it. Without the human element you wouldn't be able to get an idea of scale, of how big the arch actually is. The photos I'm making necessarily accomplish this. I like landscape photography to a degree, but I don't actively pursue it. That said, I spent nearly ten years leading week long mountain biking trips across the vast American west. My job was to take people to the most beautiful places in the country and to be knowledgeable about the places too. I also live in a very photographic place. 'We live in a post card' is something I often say. So, I do have a significant library of landscape photograpy. But I much prefer a landscape picture that is mostly beautiful landscape but also shows some evidence of human activity. To me it's much more interesting that way. The above photos are examples. The middle pic. is I-70 cutting through the San Rafeal Swell in Eastern Utah. Had I tilted the camera up ever so slightly I would have had a photo of the beautiful Swell in the snow and clouds. In fact, I took a couple shots like that. And if you are into 'pure?' landscapes, that would be one. Maybe I'll post it too. Okay, there' I posted it. A picture is worth a thousand words. Had I just posted those two together at first you wouldn't have had to read all this. I understand that some tastes would much prefer the top shot. I like it too. Maybe I've seen too many landscape pictures, might be a bit jaded. The third picture on the other hand would just be boring as hell without the truck on the tracks. A train coming out of the tunnel would have been better than nothing. But I like this photo because of the work truck on the tracks. Sure, we've all seen trucks like this before. But it's not so common. And I don't remember the last time I saw a photo of a work truck on railroad tracks.