Symmetry

I know there aren't really any "rules" in photography, but I think learning about the established guidelines could really improve my shots.  I was reading about composition yesterday.  I play a lot with depth of field. And have recently been playing around with the "rule of thirds".  I thought it would be fun to try out symmetry, as suggested here.  I looked around the house (still sleeping sick child holding me prisoner in my own home) and settled on this stained glass window, which always gets awesome sunlight in the afternoon.

Inspired by this I wanted to introduce "tension" to the shot so I left the vase.  Totally unimpressed with the results here. But I tried it and now it's something I will look for when composing my shots.

This photo kept coming out way too dark. I had to use a really high f-stop to get a decent light. I should have probably used a higher ISO.

ISO 100, f/18.0, 1/13, 41mm

In other news, it was really warm here today.