Taking Photos While Sledding

Adventure Photographer Sledding Fast on Winter Snow, San Gabriel Mountains, California

Disclaimer: Activity not recommended for the sake of your health.

I was going to write about my sledding photography adventure the other day but you know... (see previous blog entry). Anyway, so my brother and I discovered last week that it's nearly impossible to sled on fresh snow that hasn't solidified. I decided to go back up two or three days later figuring there would still be some snow but not waist deep. It turns out the slopes were packed in and icy, ideal for sledding not so much for staying upright. So on my first run I went 3/4 of the way up the hill and had second thoughts when I saw how fast the previous sledder was going.

Sledder Wipes Out Halfway Up the Slope

I figured what the heck, this is what I'd been wanting to do for a couple weeks so I'm going to do it regardless of how scary it is. Underestimating how little traction there is on ice, as soon as I put the sled down and sat in it barely, I started flying down the hill at a fast speed! It was so scary that I think I probably got one or two blurred pictures, the rest of the time I was mentally saying my last rites. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I had fully been situated inside of the sled but instead I was barreling down the mountain spinning in circles. I flew over the embankment at the bottom and landed on my ribs while the camera flew off of my neck thus landing several feet away. That didn't feel very good but I shook it off within a minute.

Since going up that high wasn't productive from a photography standpoint, I decided to use a less steep slope and only went 1/2 way up. Going slightly slower and being able to get situated in the sled was the only way I was going to be able to shoot photos while sledding. It worked out sort of. I was able to experiment with different shutter speeds over multiple runs. I didn't quite achieve what I was aiming to do, as I wanted to show part of the sled under my feet but I was pleasantly surprised to get my own shadow in the 1st image posted here. I don't know if what I originally had in mind is possible to do but it was certainly fun trying to accomplish it.

To sled, what I did was squat with my camera in my right hand and put the sled underneath me with my left hand. I sat down once the sled was positioned properly and then it took off. I had my camera set on a small aperture to get everything as in focus as possible before the motion blurring, then shot on rapid fire mode blindly and hoped to capture something resembling the experience. I wiped out at the bottom on almost every run except for perhaps two of them but was still firing away even while rolling across the ground.

I didn't have gloves on because they were still wet from the previous time so I lost part of a nail on one finger and another finger is still sore though with no visible damage. It wasn't too bad though I felt sluggish the next morning. But the lady in the photo below probably suffered a broken arm or ribs and had to be helped off the snow. As I was driving down the mountain, a fire truck and paramedics were racing up so I assume they were coming to rescue her.

Inner Tubing Injury, Angeles National Forest, California

Though it was fun, I won't ever try to sled with a camera again. Too dangerous. :-)