I’m a firm believer that there are rules that need to be broken, in art especially. I think it’s important that you should know what the rules are first, live by them when it suits you, and fold, spindle and mutilate the hell out of them when it suits you to do that. Take this photo for instance:
The rules say that the horizon should be near the top of the frame to emphasize the ground, or near the bottom of the frame to emphasize the sky. Standard landscape photography rules that work most of the time. But what if the point of the photo is to emphasize the symmetry between sky and ground?
Rule: broken.
Another example of breaking rules is this one:
The often-quoted “Rule of Thirds” says you should divide your frame into thirds and place your subject at the intersection of those lines. It makes the viewer’s eye travel around the frame and visit all parts of it before eventually landing up on your subject. Putting something dead centre in the middle of the frame “sticks” the eye to that spot. But, sometimes it just makes sense to put something in the middle, especially if you are trying to convey the idea of something’s extraordinary gravitational pull. Rule: broken.
What rules do you like to break?