Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

One of the first things they teach you when you begin to take courses on photography is about the Rule of Thirds.  Stated in simple terms, the Rule of Thirds is a guideline of sorts in which you try to position your model, of whatever you happen to be taking a photograph of, on an imaginary line in order to create a more pleasing image to the eye.  Think of placing a Tic-Tac-Toe board over your photograph.  The most important elements of your photograph should be placed along one of those lines, rather than in the center square.  In other words, the complete opposite of what you see in the first photograph.  So, why did I break this rule?  I did it for one reason.  I really liked the blurred out colours in the lower left and upper right of the shot.  The flower is the star, but I wanted to keep those two other elements in my photograph as well.  I could have tried taking the photograph at a larger focal length, but then there were other flowers that would have found themselves in my shot.  It's not always the right choice to break the rules or step out of the box, but these are your photographs, you should make them how you want.  For instance, let's look at the second photograph.  In such a case, I'd normally make sure to focus on the stems of the flower, but in this case, I found the rain drops to be more interesting so I chose to focus on them instead.  I don't think the photograph is any less interesting because of my doing so, but that might also be because it was my choice to do so.  For an example of what I would have usually done, feel free to check out my photographs of a Day Lily from last year, taken in my Mom's garden.  These came from her garden as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  I took these shots at such a high ISO because it was late in the afternoon and after a short rain shower.  I didn't want to use my flash as I find it to be a little harsh on flowers, although I suppose that might be a little rule I might be tempted to break one day as well.