Being prepared for a particular shoot of a particular thing is always necessary. Without the equipment you wouldnt have such wonderful images. And well if your being paid you need to produce exactly the right image that you have in mind before setting out to get that shot. There are bound to be times that you have gone out without a particular peice of equipment and seen something that catches your eye, and think Oo Damn !oO But then you might see something else that is just perfect for what you have avalable at the time. It really all depends on what the reasons are for taking the picture in the first place wether it be for a paid job, or just for self satifaction that you managed to capture such an image or just coz you love photography/ art. I can imagine from the various differant people in this forum range from your top notch photographer who is well known right down to the bottom on the scale of your average everyday person like myself who just has an interest. So we will all have differant ways or ideas of what we call being prepared. Or what our goals may be.