Great Egret In-Flight

Nikon D1h, 300mm f/2.8 AF-S, Matrix Metering, 1/100, f/4, ISO 200, SB-28DX, -1.7ev Matrix Balanced Fill, RAW Format, Auto WB, Auto Tone, Gitzo 410, Wimberly Sidekick.

The key to any great in-flight shot is a smooth panning technique. you can get very sharp images if you smoothly follow through on your subject. The idea is not unlike Trap or Skeet shooting. In this case, I used a realitively slow 1/100sec shutter speed and still got the bird's eye perfectly sharp. This is totally related to my ability to track this subject smoothly from well before the image was shot until it was past.