Equipment Think about a new camera

Seagull 2 is framed better, I reckon. The other chap is missing his toes.

 

Manual is handy for awkward subjects or specific requirements, you can over or underexpose as required without going to exposure compensation.
I tend to use aperture priority with exposure compensation more often than not.
Agreed with gull 1s feet, and I like gull 2 looking backwards

 

I have a handy bracket shot setting on my Nikon that takes three shots (can't remember if you hold your finger down) and the first and last are an exposure setting up/down of the middle one.

 

Yeh I was really disappointed i cut the feet off and not really sure how i managed that.

 

Auto bracketing is handy with tricky contrast.
Glad you're set up with the metered exposure in the middle, other options like normal/under/over would grate massively.

 

Same here - set ISO manually, use aperture priority and under-expose by 2-3 stops and tweak it later. Unless I'm shooting motorsport in which case I'll flip to shutter priority, set that and let the cam set up the aperture.

I use manual for stuff like long exposure, maybe the odd landscape