The Rule of Thirds for a better Photo

My interest in photography started in second grade.  We went on a field trip to a local farm, and I brought my pink 110 film camera along to take pictures of the animals.  I even borrowed my mother's camera case with a shoulder strap for the big event.  Images of some of the pictures I took that day are imprinted in my memory.  Maybe I will find some of those old photos someday.

During those akward Junior High years, I brought a camera to school to take pictures of and with all my friends.  Friends were quite a huge part of my life as a high schooler.  They were everything to me!  I have quite a few of those old photos stored in boxes.  My junior year of high school, I got my first real camera- a Canon Rebel, for my first photography class.  Those photography basics have stuck with me ever since.  I loved photography.  In a time when one actually developed their film by hand and shined light through a negative onto white paper below; followed by soaking that paper in chemicals and magically watching an image appear on that previously blank paper.  I'd spend hours in that high school darkroom.  My senior year I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica and Mexico, and discovered the ease of taking striking photographs in different cultures.  Anything that is out of our ordinary, makes for an interesting photograph.  My dream then would have been to travel and become a National Geographic photographer.  But I followed a different path and have simply allowed photography to be a creative outlet and hobby.

THE RULE OF THIRDS

Composition in photographs is key.  

As you take your photo, use the grid as a guideline for where to line up your focal point(s).  You never want to place your subject right in the center.  The goal is to place your focal point on one of the green dots.  Never place people in the center.  Also, horizons should fall along one of the horizontal lines, rather than splitting the image in half.

Here are some photos from our trip to Peru, that demonstrate the Rule of Thirds.

the Camino Inca

Machu Picchu

Moray, Peru (need to crop out man in lower right corner)
(Clearly this stranger taking our picture had a little bit of photography composition knowlegdge)

Applying the Rule of Thirds simply makes your photographs more interesting and visually appealing!  Happy shooting.  For more information search "Rule of Thirds" on google and you will find many more helpful tips to improving your photography skills- from the basics to very advanced techniques.