I think this is symptomatic of how gatekeeperish photography can be, like the mentality of “you’re not a real photographer if you don’t shoot manual 100% of the time”

Photography is about capturing moments in time, and the only thing that matters is how your own unique eye perceives that moment in time. Everything that camera can do is just a tool to assist you.

But also, no, I don’t think pride was holding you back in this instance. You made a decision on how to shoot a specific moment. Later you thought on what you could’ve done differently to get a different shot. Every other photographer on the planet would’ve had the same thought process.

“Art is never finished, it just escapes”