Of the limited options here I chose number three. I dump most of what I take now and consequently I post less and less - for now.

I dont think I have ever got what I would regard as a perfect shot upon the click of the shutter - it's something I strive for but I think I'm enjoying the journey more than the arrival if you know what I mean.

I read a book once about the snow leopard and a guy in a quest for it who discovered all sorts of thing along the way that were not foreseen at the start.

Curiosity and openness of mind seem important to me.

It's good to get inspiration about your craft from other areas as well as the bleeding obvious. I know a brilliant guitarist who is inspired by saxophone playing rather than listening to other guitarists. Frank Sinatra used trombone sounds and the breathing involved in swimming to develop his singing style. Tom Waits is, well, eh, Tom Waits.

I like the processing end of things as much as visualising an image, setting the settings, composing it and clicking the shutter. All part of the journey I guess.

Linking this with Rex's article about style and rut, I have set myself a little project to try and capture some street scenes that speak to the current economic situation and it's impact on ordinary people. Not the most original idea in the world but it's new to me. I get the occasional one that works. I find this quite challenging as I'm more comfortable with seascapes. The sea doesn't get up and walk away into a crowd so you can set a long exposure and bob's your father's brother.

I think that the most pleasing shots that I have taken were rather simple in the end.

My two favorites of mine are Hard Station and Parisienne Walkways No5. The former composite started off with all sorts of grandiose ideas but in the end when I simplified it down it worked in a way I hadnt foreseen at the outset. The latter was being attracted to two pigeons drinking at a puddle under the Eiffel Tower and when I bent down to have a go and saw the reflection of the tower I couldn't believe what I had discovered - at least for me.

So curiosity and openness of mind seem important

and visualisation

as well as keeping it simple.

Less is more.

Keep the birds happy.

In every successful photographer's memory is that moment after long study and even longer commitment to craft and vision, when all the hours and years of study, it all comes together. That perfect moment in time when the light, the subject and the inspiration coincides with skill with the release of the shutter creating the image that perfectly represents one's personal vision in a perfect image. That one shot that will be in your memory and portfolio forever. There is nothing better. Once that image is captured, processing can manipulate the values and different "final" images can be made, bit the moment of perfection is there for eternity. Lacking that perfect moment, no amount of digital (or darkroom) trickery can make a silk purse... The real trick is to do it again, and those moments don't come every day.

the perfect shot comes once a blue moon, one has to be lucky at the same time as looking for it ;

the digital lab has made the post processing work quite satisfying; one can visualize different ways to rendering or interpreting the image even as early as at the time of exposure; it allows one to create different outputs from 1 single image based on the mood one's in at the time of processing; it's not unlike seeing the image slowly taking shape in the darkroom but it's even more gratifying knowing one can tweak the image to any creative way one can think of ...

perhaps these days the time in the lab can be more gratifying than the time in the field as long as one has total control over the tool one uses ....cheers ;-))

even though I have no idea what a "perfect" shot looks like, I chose #2 because that most closely describes my picturing MO.

FYI & IMO, the very idea of a "perfect shot" is one of the most deleterious notions existent when it comes to the making of good pictures - the idea of "perfect" connotes so many of the cliched directives regarding subject, light, technique, etc. that result in a zillion play-it-again pictures.

BTW, I recently wrote about #2 here -