I rarely bracket. I use my 1 degree spot meter and know my process. I develop by inspection in Pyrocat-HD. I can adjust my development. I keep very good field notes and use this to adjust my development. I started shooting x-ray film a while back and with 8x10 costing .23 a sheet I can afford to bracket all I want.
Jim
Bracketing is like insurance, isn't it? You insure things that are important to you and where there is a risk of losing it. The more important and/or the higher risk the more you might need insurance. If I'm set up in front of a spectacular scene with extraordinary light that might never be repeated, you bet I'm going to bracket. In fact, I might shoot several sheets at the same exposure to ensure against camera shake, dust, scratch, screwed up development... On the other hand, if it's an interesting shot, close to home, where lighting is repeatable, I might shoot only one sheet. Cost is, of course, another issue with insurance. If I'm 20 miles into the wilderness and I only have 10 sheets of film left and the morning light is great, I'm going to be careful and shoot one sheet for each shot.
To me it doesn't make sense for someone to always bracket or never bracket--it depends on the risks and the costs.
Like Sandy and Wally, I sometimes make two exposures for development; either to adjust contrast, or to compare developers/ dilutions, etc. Sometimes I'll make a second exposure if I have a bad feeling about the first, but it's usually identical, so doesn't really qualify as bracketing, I don't think.
I rarely bracket, usually only when the contrast in the scene is pushing the limits of the film I'm using. Other than that, the most common redundancy that I have is to shoot a scene in color as well as in B&W, something I do when I find a composition that I think would look beautiful in black and white but also has lovely colors in it.
That saved one shot -- due to a malfunction (jammed Quickload) I lost the slide, but the neg of that shot ended up in my print portfolio, and has been well-liked by everyone who's seen it so far.
Of course, if I have shooting stars, tiger or avalanche lilies, lupines, golden larches, I am very unlikely to shoot in black and white... but for a golden larch image, I would most likely be willing to shoot backups, because opportunities to shoot larches while they're golden are hard to come by.
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