Took a look at the image, I quickly scanned the article but didn't really devote much time to reading it.... Keeping it simple really is a good thing when it comes to composition. As to the photo.... I would tend to agree it seems a bit cramped on top, maybe just a tiny bit more space needed, but I otherwise feel the compo is excellent. Of course I tend to prefer simple images that have a lot of negative space in them. The bird in this image is looking into the inside field of the picture. In your cardinal image and the different crops that were given, someone put the bird into the bottom left third of the image, he was looking out of the frame.... in Jan-Carel's crop the bird was placed at the right top/middle third of the image.... the bird was looking into the middle of the frame instead of out as in the previous mentioned. I don't think JC meant that the bird has to be to the right side of the image, but merely that it is looking into the frame and not out of it, no matter what side it may be placed on...... and if I'm wrong about that then I would be confused too..... cha-ching my 2 cents.....

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com