Can anyone share some tips on what they do to get the most dynamic movement with a short (3ft) slider on their time lapses? Currently, I makes sure I have a close foreground element and I use longer lenses. Anything you have found to create more interesting movement?

-gl

Short sliders are great! you can get plenty of movement with them. The main thing is to keep it lower to the ground than you would a longer slider. The extra benefit of this, is you can go with short tripods and legs.

Our systems by default only site about 6-9 inches off the ground, add in the ball head and camera, and the sensor is about 18 - 24 inches off the ground which offers plenty of movement.

We had a prototype belt driven slider which was 2 meters long, honestly i found it a pain in the butt. I also had to keep 2 full sized tripods because if i used the shorter legs then it was too close to the ground and the movement seemed a bit jumpy in the foreground.

On my rails which are all about a meter, i normally move about 24-30 inches tops, and do not even use the full length.

Think of it like this, 99% of the time the motion is nothing more than a way to add a sence of depth to the timelapse. its not like the camera has a real destination.

short rails, use wide angle lenses, keep it low to the ground, you will not be disappointed