[snapper]

Duncan, appreciate you raising the topic. Perhaps composition is a greater challenge for the photographer than for the painter who can more easily manipulate the scene using tone and hue, soft and hard edges, light and shade, relocating objects etc. Filters, lens choice, lighting etc can all aid composition but maybe the photographer may still need to resort to Photoshop or similar to achieve better composition. Personally, I feel that it's valuable to understand classic composition but surely there are impressive and very pleasing images that break the classical rules.
Ian of Seaham