Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge -WEEK #11 CENTERPOINT – BREAKING THE RULE OF THIRDS – Julie Powell

Essay

To continue our discussion of the rule of thirds, let’s start by breaking it. Before you can break any rule, you have to understand it enough to be able to break it successfully. One thing you can do to break the rule of thirds is to put your subject in the middle of the frame. Although, using the counterpoint doesn’t always work. It can make for a rather boring photo. If you are going to use the middle at all, you need a specific and small point of focus, something that will draw immediately the eye to the centre of the frame which your eye will then flow through the rest of the photo.

Here is one sample I thought perfect for this challenge, I took two separate shots of this lighthouse, where it is in the centre the lighthouse is the main focal point, however the other shot does give it relevance and content.

Lower Lighthouse

Lower Lighthouse overlooking Lady Bay

The next series of shots each element is central to the frame, whether it is the lock, boat, dog’s nose, the hay bale ‘Yoda’, the underside of the bridge leads your eye to the middle of the underside of the bridge. The flower is in the middle yes, but it doesn’t quite seem to work. Perhaps I should have cropped it square?