Violating the Rule of Thirds

Plans sometimes change. One of the secrets of life, I suppose, is to roll with the changes.

I happily accepted the assignment earlier this week to go back to Ireland for eleven days. Our customer there has some issues with the product I represent. My hope is that we'll be able to work together to make some substantial progress on solving their issues.

If things work out as we hope, a couple of my co-workers and I will get to do a bit of touring over the weekend. This time I'll take the tripod so I can have a better shot at some of the low-light scenes that didn't work out last time. All that overcast and rainy weather really subdues the light which is good and bad. The bad is that you have less light to capture photos so that holding your camera without a tripod produces blurred images. The good is that it makes for interesting, sometimes unusual, and often compelling light...if you can steady your camera. We'll take care of that this time even if I have to look like a tourist to do so.

All this excitement and activity surrounding the travel plans took up the little free time I had or hoped to have. Thus I did not get to make prints to enter into the state fair. Alas, there's always next year.

And now with all of that out of the way, I have a confession to make. I recently violated the rule of thirds in a photograph. Check that out--blatant disregard with the horizon slicing the photograph cleanly in half on the vertical axis! My photography instructor at the community college might cringe. Or would he?

I reasoned that it is, after all, only a rule and not a law. The question is whether I disregarded the rule in an effective way and I will leave that up to you to decide. Stick with the rule or throw it out from time to time when the right opportunity presents itself?

Comments

[Sijbrich]

But it appears to me that the picture is still clearly divided into 3 parts, even though they aren't equal. The shady part in front, the part illuminated by the sun, and then the sky. Does the rule of thirds specify that each part needs to be equal? I'm starting to not like that rule. Don't forget the artistic side of photography and let some silly rule dictate your judgement of whether or not a photo is good.

[marné]

I was going to say exactly the same thing as Sijbrich. Rules can be broken and the photography police will not give you a ticket.

[emptynest]

Forget the rule of thirds......just take beautiful pictures like this one....the important parts are all there!

[JohnDeere]

Could it be that your photography instructor at the community college knows less about photography than you do?