The Rule of Thirds has always bothered me. This is one of the best arguments against using it I have come across.
Attached is something that a well known local (Ottawa, Canada) photographer, Harry Turner posted on Facebook. Harry was the corporate photographer for Canada's National Research Council for 25 years and has taught photographyr at Algonquin College. I have met and chatted with Harry a number of times.
I'd like to post part of what he wrote to another photographer I know quite well and sums up the Rule of Thirds and why it is best ignored.
"The Rule of Thirds (RoT) has been frustrating fine artists since 1797 when a mediocre landscape artist named John Thomas Smith misinterpreted a reference by Sir Joshua Reynolds that in a work with areas of light and dark it is best that one dominate.
The rule of thirds has become myth and a crutch since. In one of the very few scientific investigations on the RoT done by a university Germany, it was derived that in esteemed paintings and photographs there was diminished correlation to the RoT. It has been found that for beginning photographers the RoT may aid in developing a sense of composition however as artist become more accomplished and confident the RoT is less evident. That as the photographer develops and gains an intuitive expertise in artistic composition they depend far less of on such rules as the RoT. Which was determined as the reason they did not find it in predominately in high quality artworks and photographs.
I have been teaching photography and photographic composition for over 40 years and have found dogged adherence to the rule of thirds is a pathway to mediocrity. The Rule of Thirds is built into the crop tools of Lightroom and Photoshop, camera viewfinders display it. The problem is the whole world is using the same cookie cutter and they all look just the same.
The world is organic and doesn't mold easily to a grid. As Edward Weston said studying the rules of composition before taking a picture is like consulting the laws of gravity before taking a walk. With your experience it is time to leave the so called rules behind and follow your developed artistic sense. We try generally to offset the subject from the center but where and how much depends on your sense of composition and what feels right. It the culmination of a myriad of micro decisions.
It come down to using depth of field, tone contrast and colour to create a strong figure-ground relationship. Is the subject the center of attention, does the viewer's eye go easily to the subject. Do other elements support or distract. Are there leading lines and how does the eye flow in the image. Are there shapes that help define the subject, like triangles which contain and keep the viewer's eye within the image and on the subject.
All this to say don't keep trying to adapt your images to some preconceived convention."
I've done some very minor editing to what he wrote (mostly broke things into paragraphs).
I had previously posted the study done at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany here:
Rule of Thirds - Debunked