I'll be honest: while I quickly grew out of the "spray and pray" phase I started my photography career in, I've still never quite bought into waiting for the precise moment when I click off that one perfect frame. This helpful video beautifully articulates why I think a philosophy somewhere in the middle is best.
Coming to you from Mitchell Kanashkevich, this video examines the pitfalls of the two extreme ends of the shooting spectrum and why a more balanced approach is probably best. Most photographers denounce the "spray and pray" method as a mindless way of going about shooting that relies more on luck than vision, but I also tend to believe that there's a such thing as going too far in the other direction. As Kanashkevich articulates, it's more about shooting with a purpose and learning to explore different angles, lighting, compositions, etc. through the viewfinder. There have often been times when I've been very sure during a shoot what "the shot" was, only to come home and stare at the collection in Lightroom and realize that I had missed something that made it a less worthy image or I simply like another photo more than I realized at the time. Had I not given myself the options, I would have been stuck with that first and only image.
I've also grown out of that phase too. Mine was more of sniper than spray and pray. But when I bought a film camera that phase came back. Not as bad but I take more pictures but still with purpose.
I commented before watching the video. What I initially meant was when I had my first digital camera I took pictures of everything! I got out of that and actually started to take pictures like this guy was explaining multiple frames of the same subject, different angle, focal lengths, etc. So I grew out of just taking pictures and started to shoot with a purpose. When I got the film camera I started to get back into the taking pictures of everything but knowing I have limited frames it does slow me down and think but I still take more pictures of random things again. If I had my dslr at the time, i know I wouldn't have taken the photos.