One of the compositional exercises I often set our students on our Venice Carnival Photo Tour is to shoot a set of images that break the rules, not because there's any inherent benefit in doing so – generally speaking these rules serve us well – but to impose a frame of mind where nothing can be taken for granted. It's a useful visual exercise, and often makes you look at a subject in quite unexpected ways.

This was my effort during that session, shot to illustrate that you can place a focal point in the exact centre of an image.