Wow..thanks Sammy for your instruction. I never saw it that way. I guess what it means to be a pro is someone who actually "works" for his shots and for their end-result. I guess I am not prepared to be a pro cos firstly, I tend to be more of an impulse shooter, and secondly, I hate the tedium of filtering, sorting and post-processing my photos. Oly works great for me as I get shots right off the camera which I keeps me very satisfied.
From what u say, it also appears that the true pros spend more time thinking and working out the shot than I had thought. I guess, this is what most people dun know too as they often judge how good a person is by how fast he shoots...hehe.
Pratice makes perfect. Pros and even very good sunday shooter might be able to shoot very fast too. Like as though they never need to think. Why? Experience lah heheh.. If you shoot enough of those condition, your brain start to think in a certain way when all the usual suspects come into play. Be it hots spots from lights, people keep walking infront of your ( you sometime use long exposure to make people disappear or just like flowing blurrs while the car is sharp for example), shooting shiny car or parts...etc. So experience counts for alot. This might be your first car shoot but some have already been there more times then you can count with all your fingers heheh.
Now you already said it...you hate to PS, you don't like to do anything else apart from just take whatever you can from your camera. The moment you press your button to what ever you capture. So now, all you need to to explore all the options and tricks you can muster from your camera then go shoot and shoot. This car show might not be your best but as you relook at all your shots later at home...you will learn from them. Maybe if you take a second trip there the next day, your shots would actually be better now. We all have to start somewhere. Stick to your camera, learns all its function and then think of ways tomake use of them to create your shots. If you don't like to PS or do post production, make sure very important shots you bracket them. Meaning... take the same shot in maybe 3 apeture setting or speed...etc. That way...one of them might just be good enough to pass then to just shoot one shot per angle or whatever heheh... there is nothing worst then going home and then you see a wonderful shot that was just a tad short of great! heheh....
almsot important thing is...enjoy yourself and your hobby. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or even make a fool of yourself ....well abit like. I recall 2 yrs ago, I was at the car show and I wanted a picture of one of those old Mercedes Benz, I literaly lie on the floor on my side to shoot under it, I grab like 20 shots from flash to without flash to long exposure. Of course I made a fool of myself but not an inconsiderate one lah...I make sure I don't make a nuisance of it...though I can't say for some of the fools I see they that tool all their gear out to shoot and keep talking loub like that are some pro and say how they want to shoot it this way and that, they refuse to let others shoot from their angle, took out various lens. Conclusion, they are there to showoff their gear...not shoot. Oh well it takes all kinds lah heh. So don't get too pressure to do something out of the ordinary if you feel it might work and your camera can do it and well...nothing wrong with experimenting. So don't always follow others when you are there or any other place you are there to take some pictures.
I recall one scene at the car show where I saw one whole bunch of people whacking away with their camera at a pair of girls on a nice bike. Everyone who saw them ...went right up to where the crowd was and started shooting. I went to the back of the girls/bike, got up as high as I could and show the girls back but I also have a big background shot of all the photographers whacking away with their cameras. It was not that nice for some reason but, it was also an exercise in thinking out of the box.
Some times pros or even normal folk can capture nice shot not by planning but just by luck...being the in the right place at the right time. The challenge is recognising it when it happens or about to happens and most importantly...fire away as much as you can. Even famous Nat Geo photographer could shoot thousands of frames and only choose one picture. That is not uncommon heheheh
SO enjoy yourself man....