It's kind of funny because I had always thought that the subject of a photo should be in the center. While I was researching composition and aesthetics I came across a great article explaining the simple technique of compositional rule of thirds, that according to Eng Loy Tan of http://www.elcreations.org/engloy/photoblog/?page many famous photographers use. This site had some beautiful images and examples demonstrating the technique. This article explains that the human eye naturally falls to these lines, so taking advantage of this a a shooting style makes a lot of sense. Some other great compositional and aesthetics tips were avoiding clutter in the back ground...to much stuff in your photograph takes away from the subject matter. Watch your angles; don't go crazy taking a photo at a weird angle just because you can. Instead pay attention to the image and look for the most flattering angle to suit your purpose. Basically, work to avoid disorientation, unless that's the look you;re going for. And don't be afraid to get down and dirty to get that great shot...sometimes those are the most interesting shots! Watch your lighting, shooting subjects using side lighting is much more flattering and can add an element of 3-D to the photo. IN addition, lighting can help guide the viewers eye around the photo to get the full effect, not to mention that lighting in general can add drama to the image.
The next article I read was wonderful and written in basic English (so even I could understand :) )Gloria Hopkins explains composition like this "In photography, composition refers to the structure, organization, and visual characteristics of the elements in your photograph" (Hopkins) http://photoinfo.com/General/GloriaHopkins/compositioninnaturephotographyandtheelementsofaphotograph.htm
She goes on to explain that when a photographer is talking about composition of a photo they are referring to things like lighting, balance,subject, texture and many more things. I think in general composition is a tough concept to explain to a new photographer...how do you help someone to understand that one of the most important techniques to amazing photography is "feeling" the image prior to ever snapping the trigger. I guess what I mean is beyond knowing, understanding, and utilizing all technical elements to the camera, things like shutter speed, flash and aperture, one must also include the element of "art" to a truly aesthetically moving/pleasing image. Yes, one can learn some techniques to assist with this such as those mentioned above....but I also think you must take just a moment (or more) to plan/feel the photo, then capture the image.
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Your thoughts are correct, in that you are used to using your eyes as the reference in photography. Everything you want to focus on is usually center and this is typically why snapshots are so blah, and they look the same no matter who takes them. If you scan people's Facebook photos you will begin to see this. If you now look around with the compositional element sin mind, you will begin to see what works and what may not as far as a shot goes. This is because you are choosing to frame the shot. You have to decide what to leave out and what to include. Your tendency is to center, but then you may leave out some really important contextual elements. This is what the rule of thirds does for you. It helps to include elements that will tell more of the story. Whew...that said, take more photos!
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