Water slide

by Angus M. Thuermer Jr. February 23, 2018April 4, 2018

Third-grader Kaden Adams, 9, gives a whoop as he barrells down a water slide set up outside Torrington’s Trail Elementary on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, during the End of the Year Field Day. The impromptu water park, along with free snow cones and other games, were the business of the day on the last day of school in Goshen County. (Andrew D. Brosig/Torrington Telegram)

Andrew D. Brosig, editor of The Torrington Telegram, The Lingle Guide and The Business Farmer, won the Wyoming Press Association’s top picture honors among small weekly papers for 2017 with the shot above.

Brosig set out last May to document Goshen County elementary schools’ end-of-the-school-year parties. At Trail Elementary School he found children playing on a Slip ’N Slide-like water-soaked plastic sheet and photographic gold.

School kids were spraying water on the slide and a garden hose and perforated PVC pipe formed a water fountain at one end. Brosig began shooting from the side before moving to the end of the slide where he set up with a 70-200mm zoom lens.

It was a bright, sunny day but still morning. The sun wasn’t yet high enough to cast the harsh, vertical light that bedevils shooters.

Never miss a Photo — sign up for WyoFile’s free weekly newsletter

At first, the water drops confused the camera’s autofocus, Brosig said, and rendered the sliding children out of focus. He switched to manual focus, stopped down the lens aperture to ensure he would get his subject’s face sharp, and held-to a fast-enough shutter speed to freeze the action and make a correct exposure.

Then along came third-grader Kaden Adams, 9, in a headlong dive. Brosig used the photograph as the lead in a two-page photo-story spread in the 2,000-circulation Telegram.

“Just the look on this little guy’s face was priceless,” Brosig said.

Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

Angus M. Thuermer Jr. is the natural resources reporter for WyoFile. He is a veteran Wyoming reporter and editor with more than 35 years experience in Wyoming. Contact him at angus@wyofile.com or (307)... More by Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for:

Your real name — first and last.
Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
No more than three comments per story, including replies.

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
Comments that are not directly relevant to the article.
Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know:

Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement.
We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance.
Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you.