We had been out and about today doing chores and as we headed home we spotted the most beautiful sunset.  We made a quick dash to a favourite riverside spot to watch the sunset and take our daily photo. The kids are enjoying the being involved in the PAD (photo a day), for now at least.  From past experience I know that their enthusiasm will likely wane by the end of the month.

TODAY'S PHOTO TIP - Composition and the rule of thirds

There is a rule of composition in the art world called the rule of thirds.  If you imagine a photo with a 3x3 grid overlaid on it there are 4 points where the lines intersect.  These are the parts of the image where the eyes like to rest so it makes sense to put the most interesting part of the image there.  Below you can see that the kids are placed at one of these intersections and the brightest part of the sun is at another.  The rule also states that your subject should fill two thirds of the frame as the sunset sky does here.  

Take a look at some of your own photos to see if they could be improved by cropping them according to the rule of thirds.  There are lots of free programs out there that allow you to do that.  You might find you've been placing the subject smack bang in the middle of the frame.  Paying attention to this rule can lift your photos from snapshots to beautiful portraits.