Another APUG stone in the pond of thought, namely pressing the shutter.

Do you think about what you are seeing when you press the shutter, or is it just an intuitive reaction devoid of thought?

Since most of my exposures are in the range of 10 seconds to 30 minutes, I'd have to be experiencing satori or brain death to be devoid of thought for that long. But mostly I am seeing in such a way that it takes all my brain to do so.

Such an Alan Watts question...

I use view cameras almost exclusivly, all the looking, seeing and thinking have been done by the time I push the shutter cable..

Muscle memory is the phenomena that occurs when our minds finally notice that "hey, I've got deja vu", and this happens after dozens or hundreds of repetition of the same event.

We are able to drive our car, or walk and get somewhere and not even realize we were walking/driving.

It enable athletes to react to stimuli and do the correct thing rather than having to think about it and screwing it up.

With photographers, after years of experience, it is possible to "know" when to trip the shutter at the right time.

That doesn't mean we aren't thinking but that we aren't consciously thinking.

Of course some photographers never get the exact millisecond right, but that's just because they suck. ( I mean that in the most diplomatic way)