Did you know that if you invert the golden ratio you get an equally curious result? These things aside, I almost never use the guidelines in the cropping tool. I use my eye, and it's pure coincidence that the photo shows a perfect 1/3 composition. If I was absolutely stuck trying to find a good composition I might try placing stuff on the thirds or the intersection of thirds just to give myself justification for my choice, but like so much else in editing, rules are only guidelines and not to be seen as absolute. I've never experimented with the golden ratio in composition - perhaps I should. But I'd be wary of trying to train my eye to override what it thinks looks right. Perhaps if I saw more examples of the golden ratio working well it might influence how I see things, but at this point in time I don't think I'm missing out when I don't pursue it as a composition rule.

I'll stick with what I already said about the crop. More foreground would mean a larger featureless grass area in the centre foreground, which is something I consciously chose to avoid when cropping. But I agree that it's an interesting subject. Thanks for commenting.