“The third time’s the charm,” the saying goes.
It is a paean to the payoff of persistence. Get back up on that horse, re-tackle that problem, dare to open your heart after it’s not only been broken, but broken once again.
It expresses a magical intersection among effort, hope and faith.
Falstaff dispatched one Mistress, advising: “this is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go; they say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.”
(Homer Simpson’s approach is the considerably less Shakespearean flip side: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”)
Little did I know that the allure of the third also is a tenet of photographic composition–one to which I unwittingly have been subscribing, casting vivid foreground wonders against glittering bouquets of bokeh, endless points of light far beyond my grasp. . . at least on first or second try.
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Author: Stephanie
In her spare time, Stephanie works full-time, and then some, as an attorney. She has published articles and delivered talks in arcane fields like forensic evidentiary issues, jury instructions, and expert scientific witness preparation. She attended law school on the banks lso is an adjunct professor at a law school near the banks of the Charles River and loves that dirty water, as she will always think of Boston as her home.
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Love in the Spaces 
Stephanie, thank you for the kind words on my Rule of Thirds photo; this is a back-at-you, the Monarch butterfly photo is very fine, a colorful reminder that Winter will eventually leave (for those in the Northeast) even as it hasn’t “arrived” here (in the Pacific Northwest). Glad you shared that.
Thank you! I would love to see the Pacific Northwest for myself, and enjoy seeing it through your lens. You have a great eye and technique for unique presentation of things so many of us have photographed, but never quite like that.
I like the way that you brought us to the Rule-of-Thirds challenge. It is delightful and surprising.
Thank you, Allan. My mind works in often perplexing ways 🙂
There is a lot of that going around.
Wow! Remarkable third’s!
Thanks, Amy. It was interesting to see that the “third” concept is imbedded in most of the photographs my daughter loaned me to gaze upon (when she set up my computer–a thing I need to rely on my children to do).
beautiful images working in the rules of thirds. Really nice.
Thank you so much–and your photographs are absolutely amazing. We not-really-photographers are very grateful for the understandable photographic instruction!