I've been a photographer for over 40 years. The camera is not the same as a human eye, it sees the world differently. If you want to make the most of what a camera can do for you, you have to think like a camera and see the world like a camera. A camera freezes a moment in time and holds it for all eternity. Your human memory is inconsistent, fallible. When you look at a photo that was taken 20 years ago, that photo hasn't changed and it brings your memories flooding back, or more accurately, it gives you a foundation for building your memories.
Capturing the image is important but what's even more important is knowing how to work with the subject. You've had a camera pointed at you and heard the instruction to "smile!" but smiling isn't enough. It isn't the real you. It's a mask worn for the sake of the photo. Inside you is something much more valuable; your passion, your fun, your joy, your spark of inspiration, your genius.
My job isn't really to point the camera and press the button. It's to bring out your inner genius so that the moment in time caught by the camera is one that you'll want to return to, again and again.