Love your autofocus

For fast-moving shots, autofocus is a critical tool in keeping subjects crisp. Using manual focus quickly enough to capture a moving subject under these conditions is next to impossible, but with autofocus, your dSLR does the job of focusing your picture for you.

We took this photograph of a boy who jumped off the top of a muddy slope and then landed in the mud, skidding down the hill at high speed. To take the shot we got extremely close to where it seemed like the boy's trajectory would take him. Luckily, the guess was almost spot-on and this was one of the pictures we took as he sped past. Autofocus was absolutely critical in this shot because the subject was fast-moving. We didn't get to talk to the lad, he was too quick for us, but he seemed to enjoy playing to the camera. By the time he'd got to the end of the mudslide, he was ready to climb up again and have another go.