Unconventional Compositions and artistic douchebags

I've been thinking a little bit about this recently, and it all kind of centres around this photo.

I've gotten quite a few negative remarks about this photo since I first published it in 2007. Mostly concerning the composition. There seems to be a lot of people who think the cropping is all wrong and that the image lacks balance, and that I should have followed the "rules". But ironically, when I tell them I've "broken the rules on purpose" they suddenly become very impressed and like the image after all.

First of all, I seldom (if ever) think very much about composition etc when I'm in the field. I usually just see what works and what doesn't. And I'm not afraid to experiment either, so I usually just play around with what I come across and see what comes of it later. And that's the way I like to do things. Getting back to the photo above, I had the same approach there. I tried a lot of different angles, depths etc. But this is the one I settled on when I decided to publish.

Why? Because it looks right to me. And when you think about it, it can be analysed without falling apart too xP
The flower moves diagonally through the image, giving it life and movement even though it's in black and white. The blurry background gives the flower main focus, but at the same time it brings forward the negative spaces in the photo, and it anchors the movement to the left side. Also the background divide the photo in a way that you can clearly see the rule of thirds. The flower doesn't just "fall out" of the photo, because of the background.

And I don't know about you guys, but I tend to think about these things quite a bit when I do the post processing of my photos, even if I don't do it in the field. And it bothers me when people try to pick apart my art at first and then suddenly change their mind just because I was able to show them I actually *did* think about such things before I published.. The photo doesn't magically become better just because the person who took it demonstrates the ability to think once or twice.

Either you like something or you don't. At least have the balls to stand by your opinions. Don't be an artistic douchebag (which is just a regular douchbag trying to hide behind fancy words and arm flailing).