Wow! A lot of dialog on this one. I'd meant to jump into the fray early on, but I missed that opportunity. Most of my shooting is in fast-moving situations, primarily sports (track & field and cross-country) and travel (escorting both small & large groups in hectic environments).

Plus I'm lazy-as-all-get-out. :-)

So, I shoot almost exclusively in aperture mode (as wide open as I can stand), auto-bracket (values depend on the range of lighting variations), adjust the exposure compensation appropriately (a topic worth a discussion all unto its own), shoot in burst/continuous mode, use auto WB (unless special circumstances), and rely on auto-focus. I bump the ISO up/down to keep the shutter in a range I can stand, and I live with the noise. I don't do the HDR thing.

Manual mode? Been there, done that. HDR? Did that a long time ago; might resume sometime.

I have to tell you, when you're on a moving boat in the Amazon, dodging low-hanging branches, watching after the safety your clients, and trying to get a few decent shots -- umm, well, you take shortcuts.

To borrow on that old "location, location, location" saying: "situation, situation, situation."

Wow! A lot of dialog on this one. I'd meant to jump into the fray early on, but I missed that opportunity. Most of my shooting is in fast-moving situations, primarily sports (track & field and cross-country) and travel (escorting both small & large groups in hectic environments).

Plus I'm lazy-as-all-get-out. :-)

So, I shoot almost exclusively in aperture mode (as wide open as I can stand), auto-bracket (values depend on the range of lighting variations), adjust the exposure compensation appropriately (a topic worth a discussion all unto its own), shoot in burst/continuous mode, use auto WB (unless special circumstances), and rely on auto-focus. I bump the ISO up/down to keep the shutter in a range I can stand, and I live with the noise. I don't do the HDR thing.

Manual mode? Been there, done that. HDR? Did that a long time ago; might resume sometime.

I have to tell you, when you're on a moving boat in the Amazon, dodging low-hanging branches, watching after the safety your clients, and trying to get a few decent shots -- umm, well, you take shortcuts.

To borrow on that old "location, location, location" saying: "situation, situation, situation."

The discussion helps all of us. It was a conversation here that made me realize that auto ISO might do what I wanted. :-)

There are two other factors for my approach. My first cameras were hand-me-down Olympus OMs, which only had aperture priority and manual, so that's what I first got used to. But more important, I'm always thinking in the same way, so I don't have to spend any attention on whether I'm changing the shutter speed or aperture. It's always the same, and I think that makes it easier for me.

Let me be the first and at this point, the only person to admit I use Program mode 99.9% of the time on my Nikon D700. I didn't start out with a D700, I began with a Yashica 124 twin lens reflex using a hand held meter then onto a Minolta SRT102, a Nikon 8008, a Nikon D70 and finally the D700.
On the earlier cameras, very time I tried to out guess the camera with manual settings, the camera won, hands down. I came to the realization, especially with the D700, I have in my hands a very powerful, sophisticated, highly programed camera with literally hundreds of thousands of settings for just about any situation this camera is likely to encounter and I'm going to ignore this ability I've paid thousands of dollars for and try and out think it. Really? No, this is what the camera can do and I let it do what it was designed to do, allow me to shoot pictures that I enjoy!