A few brief tips to help educate your photographic eye.
We photographers employ a variety of techniques to achieve the desired effect: to capture an image that is really attractive because of some aesthetic value or values present in it, and we are aware of the things that make a photograph "beautiful", and we use them to produce images.
One of those techniques is to use geometric figures to organize elements we see in our environment (characters, objects, places) and introduce them apparently inside a circle, triangle, semicircle, arcs, a quadrilateral (any polygon with 4 sides) or other simple polygon.
The technique is applied as follows:
1.- We take a look at the object-place-subject we are going to photograph.
2.- We draw an imaginary geometric figure around the element or elements to be photographed. Logically our photograph will not have the polygon drawn on it.
This is how the placement of the geometric figures would look in our mind to help us compose photographs that are pleasing to the eye.
3.- If there are several elements, we do our best to circumscribe it inside our geometrical figure by moving from place to place to get a useful perspective or by moving the elements to be photographed (when it is possible to do so, of course).
4.- Take the pictures and marvel at getting a basic and powerful composition.
5.- Keep practicing to become proficient in this technique and get better pictures.
Tip: The more clearly you can distinguish your geometric figure in your photograph, the better the composition will be, and make sure that the imaginary figure is large enough to be easily distinguished. You can also place more than one geometric figure on opposite sides of the photograph, or place only one towards a corner. The important thing is to experiment.
In this photograph it is easy to determine that the geometric figure technique has been used to achieve a balanced, pleasing and aesthetic composition.
Take a look at my photos at www.flickr.com/photos/y31k0/ and see if you can find a nice one that inspires you.