For me, the best way to develop your skills is to attend seminars and meet other photographers. In learning about my specific camera and to capture some new ideas, I`ve signed up and will take just about every course that`s appropriate for my equipment and experience level given by Henry`s School of Imaging. For those that don`t know, Henry`s Camera is a store, online and irl, that well, sells a good variety of cameras etc from basic to pro. It`s filled with some very remarkable individuals who are exceptionally enthusiastic of photography and are more then happy to discuss their latest photo shoot as well as listen to yours. Most times when I walk in there I feel that buzz of life that comes from meeting others who are keenly interested in a hobby you find fascinating. Like that time my son was in heaven when I walked into a hobby train store with him to purchase some materials for the ground on his train set. The man there was so interested in different types of miniature moss and sand, I was at a loss to try to stop myself from giggling. I remember thinking, `Mate, I just want some dirt to place beside this itty bitty plastic person so that he can look a tad more realistic as this itty bitty expensive train goes whipping past him.` I obviously didn`t share his passion for sand and dead green plants. Perhaps my son will roll his eyes and sigh when I bring him into Henry`s one day…) Okay I digress.
The one course I thought about then declined was the one on `Composition`. Now, one would think that would be the most important course to take. If you take a badly composed picture, no matter how good your technical skills, you will have missed the real art in the picture. Yet, as soon as I finish typing that I can hear my former art instructors screaming in my head. `But what of the intentionally badly composed art` they shout. For every rule there are a thousand reasons to break them. Every time someone explains a rule, the next word out of their mouth or pen, seems to be, `BUT`. The trick is to realize how and why you are breaking them.
The primary rule of photography in composition, other then to know what the proper subject of your picture is, is known as the Golden Rule, or the Rule of Thirds. By way of simplification, this is the placement of the subject in areas in the picture frame so as to be most pleasing to the viewer. An image that is placed in the dead center of the frame is considered boring and can tell the viewer that there is nothing else of interest in this photograph. An image that is placed slightly to the top, bottom or sides along these `golden lines`incorporates the background and foreground into the story of the picture in ways that are meaningful, and that can be manipulated.
A quick and easy online read about the golden rule can be found at Creativity and the Rule of Thirds written by Jim Altengarten. His most important advice:
Consider the Rule of Thirds to be the Guidelines of Thirds. If the main subject is always placed at one of four points in the frame,
creativity suffers. There are many situations where using the Rule of Thirds will enhance the image. Other situations require more
creativity, and that means bending or breaking this rule.
Jim Altengarten
So in the end, I am comfortable with my choice not to take a course on composition. From my small background in art, I trust my eye to guide my hand in composing an image that aims for the emotion I am capturing. Sometimes playing about with juxtaposition is the fun part of photography; including strong heavy vertical lines with light subject matter, or placing a mountain in the top third of a horizontal frame with nothing but two thirds of lake below `holding it up`. The average viewer of that latter picture might be puzzled, but a fellow photographer or artist might smile. Yet sometimes, practicality wins the day. As an example: the artist in me would love to print out that perfect portrait of my mother staring off into the distance in a cropped format with the intersection of her chin and neck at the upper left `sweet spot` so that I focus on curve of her profile and the look of her skin from the point of view of a younger me looking up at her. I think my mother would prefer that I not print out that picture. For her, she would much prefer that I print the image where her right eye is in that same sweet spot. Perhaps I`ll print both, knowing the rules. 
