I really don't think about the rules of composition when I'm shooting now. I really feel its intuitive and that I search the edges of my frame to make my images now. But I need to remind myself at times to remember the basics--the foundations and especially now that I teach--i need to put into words what I've come 'feel'. I know things like using devices such as frame within a frame(below) linear pattern(bottom) Rule of thirds and diagonals with emphasis on the golden mean(top). But how do you explain it when the image isn't already taken--how do you teach this in a way that the students see it before they snap the shutter? I was told early on that I had an eye--i didn't know I did and it didn't really register to me--I wanted to know what I was doing--not feel as if I got lucky to make an image based on an eye that I didn't understand. So as I studied art and design and learned the rules, I realized that I saw in a way that rules follow--and in some instances I found breaking the rules to be better. To me photography can be taught, artistic expression can be guided or helped along with some rules, but ultimately you have to find that balance within yourself--the balance between the technical aspects of the craft--that which you need to just make an image--and craftsmanship of your own vision--or the quest for communication through the medium. You can't simply intuitively make and have good results for years and years--there has to be some acknowledgment of and understanding of how you create--how you see. But you need to be very aware of that intuitive eye and not let it slip away. This is what I'm going to talk to my class about tomorrow(later today!). SayerMotter Photographs from a shoot with Janae on Wednesday morning.