I am always up for a photo challenge. It is time to violate the widely accepted photography “rule of thirds”. The premiss of the rule of thirds is that the subject of the photo is placed on the left or right vertical third of the image and the horizon is place on the top or bottom third of the image. Thank you Nancy Merrill for giving us amateur photographers permission to violate this rule.
This Great Blue Heron was just waiting for us to drive by as we returned from a day trip to Cades Cove in Eastern Tennessee.
Original
Black spot is sort of centered in the frame.
Dead Center
Black spot is dead center of the image after cropping square.
Rule of Thirds
Black spot is positioned on the left third of the frame and horizontally centered.
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Tales from the WagginMaster 
Great shot. Rules are meNt to be broken.
Great uses of breaking the rule. Beautiful image. Thanks for joining the challenge!
I voted for Rule of Thirds. My better half taught me to always emphasize movement/directions in a photograph. In my opinion it is here the direction into which the Blue Heron is looking. This way, you can follow his gaze better and feel emotionally attached. A bit at least. 😉 Best wishes from Toronto, Jana
http://www.meandmyveritas.wordpress.com
PS: Also the water is flowing into the same direction… That’s perfect. 😉
Thanks for the comments. That is what I was looking for.