Composition & Aesthetics

I found a lot of great links about aesthetics and composition and have a much better understanding of the general "rules" in photography. One quote I found that I thought captured the meaning of aesthetics was :

"Aesthetics in photography is how people usually characterize beauty in this art from. There exists no single consensus on what is exactly pertains to. The broad idea is that photographic images that are pleasing to the eyes are considered to be higher in terms of their aesthetic beauty"
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~wangz/project/imsearch/Aesthetics/ECCV06/datta.pdf
I would definitely read the entire article if you haven't already.

Aesthetics definition: the philosophy of art; is the study of beauty and taste. It is about interpreting works of art and art movements of theories.

Basically, any photograph that draws you in to take a deeper look and that gives you a certain feeling or connection to the image.

I also found some great links about composition:
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules

http://digital-photography-school.com/5-elements-of-composition-in-photography/
Both are very informative about the "rules" to follow in enhancing the quality of a photograph. I found interesting advice from the first link that states "The 'rules' above should be taken with a pinch of salt. If they don't work in your scene, ignore them." However, you should learn the different types of composition so you can use them when you want to!