My Second Outing

[justin156bc]

Great Pictures

[Cajun Blake]

sweet pics Clint

[Bluesman]

Coming along nicely. I'm partial to No 3.
Coming from a Art School dropout there really isn't a "Rule" of Thirds and trying to satisify the definition is difficult. Concentrate on the subject matter then determine if the background objects contribute to your eye being drawn to the object. If so the object must be as perfect as possible.
Another way of using thirds is to make an effort of trying to show where the subject is going. If a bird is flying from right to left you would crop or compose the shot to leave as much room on the left as possible. It shows where he might be headed and draws the eye back to the bird.
Most of the time we strive to show as much detail as possible by cropping out the entire background and centering the subject. Sometimes it's a little much to absorb.
Study how a background can draw your eye to the subject. The better background will let you place the subject in a place about 1/3 from any given border. A very "busy" background is distracting.
Keep at it.

[Bill M]

Nice shots.

[Kevin]

Glad you got the new camera! I added you as a contact on flickr.

[daphysicist]

Nice composition on the second one.