Originally posted by ninelives
there is no such thing as one shot one kill thingy. a real professional will take a lot of shots on the same scene. it is not that their skill is not up to par but it is because the scene is very important, the scene is not easy to get. They take a lot of shots as possible just in case something screw up, be it himself, camera or the lab.
Never just take a shot and leave, that stupid.
A slight correction here
It largely depends on what as a professional photographer you are shooting. Sport for example only give you 1 short chance per window of opportunity (eg: rugby tackle) and each frame will be different os having the ability to nail each frame in terms of exposure, composition etc is highly critical. The same applies for wildlife photography where in many cases you have a very short window of opportunity to make the shot.
For more leisurely work such as architecture, landscapes, product and general commercial work it's more common to bracket each shot with 3-5 frames being pretty normal. The same applies to most facets of Photojournalism, with the exception of Media Calls where it's burn film and then some.
About the only time I'll use a whole roll on a single composition is if the shoot is going to be impossible to recreate, eg: spectacular race crashes, and shooting from flying machines (assorted) or where access is all but impossible to procure.