Where Does the Border Begin?

Yellow Legs in Black and White

I have been thinking about  the use of borders placed upon an image during post processing.  For most of my photographs, I choose not to use one.  I think that for landscapes, street scenes, portraits, candid photos, wildlife, etc., borders add little to the presentation.  However, every now and then I see a photo where a border brings a feeling of completion to the photo.  What bothers me is that I don't seem to have a particular rule or reason to add a border.

Using this week's photo as an example, the reason that I placed it within a border was to make it stand out from the white background on this page.  This decision had nothing to due with the photo itself but everything to do with where I was intending to display it. "To border or not to border" is a question that doesn't seem to offer any guidelines similar to the way that the rule of thirds or use of leading lines offer to assist in creating a composition.  

Speaking of composition, I have been experimenting a bit by placing subjects in different areas of my compositions disregarding the rule of thirds guideline.  My thought is that sometimes it occasionally works by creating tension for the viewer by drawing their eye through the photo to an unfamiliar place.  There is a hint of that strategy in this week's photo where I intentionally left a greater amount of negative space at the top by using a severe portrait style crop referencing the traditional Eastern Asian scripts that are to be read vertically.  

As further research,  I plan to see if this placement of objects within a frame concept has an application aside from photography.  To do so, I will be placing our tupperware lids away from their corresponding containers just to get feedback from my wife.  Perhaps, it will lead to eating fewer leftovers!