The importance of good composition has diminished over the last century as technological advances have allowed for greater experimentation. When I took my firs

The importance of good composition has diminished over the last century as technological advances have allowed for greater experimentation. When I took my first photography class in High School, our teacher gave us a single roll of film and dictated what he wanted to see in each shot taken (e.g. shallow depth of field) and any composites we did were by taking scissors to prints in the dark room. A lot of thought went into each shot when you knew you only had one shot. Today we're able to take hundreds, even thousands, of ridiculously high resolution photographs of a scene. We can program our cameras to do automatic bracketing so we're sure to get the right exposure, and if not we can fix it in post. We're no longer limited to composition before we capture the photo as we can import a series of photos into Photoshop and create panoramic, HDR, composites, and just about anything else years after an event. I think there is definitely some value in learning a few of these rules because they do help you take better pictures when you don't have the luxury of time to experiment, to plan or control your environment. A prime example is taking photos of your kid at a sporting event. Understanding lines of sight, directions of travel, the rule of thirds, and knowing how to frame the subject can really help you to capture the emotion felt in a very fleeting moment.