A few tips and tricks if you are going to photograph Slip n Slides.

• Get the responsible adult (not you obviously) to manage the kids (sliders), you will need to watch out for yourself.
• Choose a hill for more fun and better angles for photography.
• Get close but don’t get run over, keep to the side to avoid sliders.
• Get low down, so you can capture the face and expressions and avoid shadows.
• You will get wet as the water is running downhill, protect yourself and your gear.

• Capture the hoser too, they often have great expressions and actions.

• Capture the background kids playing and waiting.
• Get the kids to use a go pro to capture their point of view.
• Move the slide if that area gets too messy/muddy.
• Get more than one at a time (if they’re careful).
• Camera will focus on drops rather than face – it can look good too.
• Photograph the spectators as well, especially if they are getting in on the fun.

Technical Settings

• Use a long lens to be as far away as possible – in these shots I used an Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f2.8 PRO Micro-four thirds lens, which has the 35mm equivalent of an 80-300mm lens and it’s weather proof.
• I used a 2.8 f-stop but you may want more depth of field to capture more background behind your sliders. Also if you are using a full-frame camera your depth-of-field at 2.8 will be much less and so harder to get in focus.
• It goes without saying. Use a fast shutter speed. These are 1/2500s. To capture the water drops moving, you can drop it down a bit slower. Some motion blur adds to the feel.
• You can use a continuous shutter setting on your camera or just shoot lots of frames.
• Manual focus can work well if you pick a spot to focus on and let the subject slide there. Or you can try continuous auto-focus.
• Enjoy!

Disclaimer – be careful and be safe.