Sandhill Crane Taking Off at Sunset

Nikon D1h, 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S, Matrix Metering, 1/80sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, SB-28Dx, -1.7ev Fill, Better Beamer, Handheld, RAW Format

One of the challenges of Auto Focus technology is getting stuck with always placing the subject in the middle of the image. Most people--I'm no exception--use the camera's center sensor and unfortunately this is the root of the problem. There are two ways to defeat this. First, you can take the subject off the center sensor as the it flies by to a more pleasing postion. With clear sky background, this is easy to do. With a cluttered background, this is very difficult and usually you'll loose the AF track to a tree or something. The other technique is simply crop the image in your Digital Darkroom. This image was cropped about 10% off the top to remove some dead space. While it's not perfectly composed, the image is much more pleasing than if it was smack dab in the middle of the frame.