Summer fun, spring rain and overcast autumn days are all filled with opportunity to include water play in your photoshoot. It’s a grand way to add a lot of fun to a family photo session.
Ready, set, get wet: fun water play photo ideas for families with small children
This prompt works for the entire family, for kids playing together, and a child on their own. Most kids love to play with and in the water. In cold weather rug up and venture outside to splash around in rainy day puddles, and in hot weather, jump in the pool and make memories.
How to use this photo pose prompt
This is a “sit back and let things happen” style prompt. All you have to do is set up the water play, and then photograph what happens! Pay attention to fun interactions between parents and children, and what the kids do on their own.
Use a weather-sealed lens and body combination (I use the Canon 7D Mark II with my Tamron 70-200mm f2.8) or prepare to stay far enough back to avoid getting your kit wet. A long lens will help with this.
Suggested camera settings
- Fast shutter (the higher the better to freeze the water).
- ISO as low as possible for the light to keep shutter speed fast.
- Shoot in burst mode to catch best moment.
- Use continuous focus mode and focus on the eyes. If you own a camera that allows fine grain control over the autofocus (like my Canon 7D Mark II), choose or set a mode that resists switching focal point, to prevent the autofocus switching to water splashed in front of the face. If you don’t have this setting, try single focus mode and lock focus on the subject before the action starts, if you find the water is pulling focus.
Idea 1: Get wet at home
- Set up a sprinkler and have the kids run through the water spray. Squirt the hose or prop it up to make a make-shift sprinkler if you don’t have a sprinkler attachment handy.
- Wet a concrete driveway and make puddles to splash in. Chuck on gumboots, grab an umbrella, and set the kids loose to jump. Shoot the whole action and tight on the feet where they hit the water. Sail a paper boat or rubber duckies in the homemade puddle, or wait until the water is motionless and capture reflections.
- Have a water fight: water pistols, hose, even just a bucket of water and a few brightly coloured cups to scoop and throw with.
- For toddlers and older babies, set up a water play station: a big dish of water (e.g. baby bath, salad bowl, plastic crate) and some cups, ladles, funnels, etc. Have parent and baby play together with the water and capture the interactions. Shoot from baby’s height to catch expressions.
- Upturn a plastic container with a flat base, cover it with water, then let the kids play it like a drum.
- A sprinkler in a garden can also be used to simulate real rain, which can be fun for a couple willing to get drenched.
Idea 2: Here comes the rain
- A rainy day doesn’t have to mean postponing a family photoshoot: the diffuse, even light of a cloudy day is wonderful to shoot in (no harsh highlights and shadows).
- Get out in the real rain: put on gumboots, umbrellas, raincoats. Capture kids spinning in the rain, suggest catching raindrops with tongues, cloud watching, etc.
- Shoot details: eyelashes with water droplets, little hands held in big ones, reflections in puddles, little legs walking under enormous umbrellas.
Idea 3: Swimming fun
- Safety first! Safety must be your number one priority with young children bodies of water: always have an adult within arms-reach of children in the water.
- Jump in a swimming pool and splash around, capture water games, splashing, water fights.
- Remember that public swimming pools may have rules about photography, so check first.
- Run along the edge of the waves at the beach, and play chase with the water. Make sandcastles and let the water wash them away. Capture details: zinc on noses, fluffy coloured towels, drippy ice-creams, etc.
Creative extension
- Experiment with lighting and flash (see the prompt Throw Stuff for suggestions on flash setup) to crystallize the water. Get Flashy goes into all the detail you need to use flash on and off camera.
- Get underwater yourself if you have the camera for it! Even a cheap underwater camera is enough to throw a new take on any subject. I use my GoPro or my Fujifilm FinePix XP140. Ever seen the book Underwater Dogs, by Little, Brown and Company (or the cover of Nirvana–Nevermind)? Find a fresh underwater take on something common.
What are some ways you like to use water in your photoshoots? Tag @promptographerguide and use the hashtag #promptographerguide to share with us.
Want this prompt in your Field Cards set?
All the info in this prompt post is summarised onto a single card in the Promptographer Guide Field Cards, with the details given in the accompanying Guidebook. All the ideas are given on the one card so you have a rich, comprehensive tool for sparking ideas. I’ve designed it this way so you only need five to ten cards to build a whole photoshoot.
If you want this prompt in your set, make sure you include Set 10: Whole Family Moments in your Field Cards.
