Taking lots of photos help but the reason for multiple shots SHOULD be for timing purposes only. Life is not still. People move, surf rolls, birds fly. Everything is moving and since as observers we don't know the future the only way to cover yourself is recognizing a potential moment in time and being ready to capture it. Sometimes It means you must take advantage of a few seconds of time and capture a number of images within that time period.

I started my career in motion pictures shooting documentaries. The best tool a documentary cameraman has is experience gained from intuitively 'guessing' what is about to take place, positioning, focusing & rolling before it happens and shutting down when it's over. I had one producer tell me "Only shoot the home runs".

When documentaries started using video I lost interest in documentary format as tape was so much cheaper than film you could just roll all the time. I felt like the best part of my photography had been taken away. The mechanics of photography is the easy part.

If you're shooting a bowl of fruit you dont need to shoot 50 photos.

On the other end of the spectrum (but really the same thing) is the 'Ansel Adams' approach to photography. When asked what his secret was to his beautiful photography the response was "I set up where I feel God is going to do something and just wait". CLICK, one shot.