I'm sure some of you have at least heard of the rule of thirds whether or not you know what it is. There are two ways to look at the rule of thirds. First your subject (traditionally a landscape of some kind) takes up about two-thirds of your picture plane. If your focus is a beautiful sunset, then the sky should take up about two-thirds of the photograph, and if its the awe-inspiring Grand Tetons that you are focussing on then they should take up at least two-thirds of the picture plane. Simple right. The second approach to this compositional rule is a little different. Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid drawn in your view finder or on your LCD screen (some of the newer digital cameras actually have this option to turn on the grid in the menu some where), where the lines intersect each other they create points where the main subject is to be placed at. I know, its a little confusing, my photo students take a while to understand the idea. I've included some images that may help.
So for my photo today I just went to my backyard as my dogs were playing with their pig ears. Typically I wouldn't have considered my backyard as a first option for a photo. But as I walked around watching my dogs play, the objects (really its just junk), and the textures interact with each other, I began to see pictures I could make instead of just simple snap shots. I think that is one of the main hurdles to overcome in photography, well at least for me, is to look at the world as art works needing to be created with a camera instead of a paint brush.
