Welcome BM. Interesting concept "Slowing down" When I first took up photography in the 80's I shot 36 exposure slide film and I shot automatic all the way. I'd take em to the drug store, (Chemist) get them processed and maybe if I was lucky get back a couple of reasonable images. I shot colour all the way so no way to process myself, then sadly I lost interest. When digital came about My interest returned. I got a modest digital camera and set it to auto exposure and I'd fiddle around on manual sometimes but I'd always go back to auto. Then I thought, How does the camera do such a good job at exposure using it's auto brain and I suck if I try to do it myself? Gradually over time and study using exif data I began to see how the camera was making better decisions than me and the mechanics behind that. Now I get maybe five good shots on a roll of 36 I can eek out a couple more because I now own my own lab...PS6 I think ultimately you are correct in the slowing down though. Look at a scene, decide what the image you want is and then use your knowledge of camera function to get the vision recorded. I shoot so slowly now I'm lucky to pull off an image a month and that's probably gonna be a cat. Slow down...Corectomundo and welcome again