Break the Rules: Dog Photography 52 Week Project - Week 15

In week 15 of the Dog Photography 52 Week Project we are going to break the rules. I'm starting out by breaking the rules of this project. I'm using images that I've taken previously. You see, it is spring break for the public schools in Charlotte so my pet sitting business has me hopping! Pet sitting combined with a scheduled photo session this week and photo editing from a previous recent session is about all I can handle. Needless to say I am busy but I'm not complaining. Busy is good. Busy is great actually.

When I first got into photography I read a lot about the rules of composition. One of them is the "rule of thirds" which is when you divide your photo with two vertical and two horizontal lines (like a tic tac toe board). The rules states that you should position the important parts of the scene along those lines. In dog photography, putting one of the dog's eyes on the intersecting horizontal and vertical lines is considered good practice. Generally it isn't considered good practice to put your subject right in the middle of the scene. Placing the subject off to the left or the right (on one of those imaginary vertical lines) is recommended. 

I went back and looked at some of my photos to see where I might break the rules and I found that I frequently put my subject in the middle of my photos. I love panoramic photos, I use them a lot on my website and on my blog and I like for the subject to be smack dab in the middle of the frame. Here are some others where the subject is in the middle of the frame.

That's it folks.  This is my short and sweet blog post about how to 'break the rules.' I'm curious to see what the other photographers do with this topic. Next up is Rochelle from Dark Sapphire Pet Photography, Nelson, New Zealand. Keep clicking the links at the bottom of each post and you'll end up back here.