DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

The beauty and elegance of synchronized swimming captured in aerial photos

May 7, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Synchronized swimming has fascinated me ever since I was a child. I’ve always admired the talent required to perform this beautiful, elegant crossover of swimming and dance. In a series of aerial photos, Brad Walls captured precisely the beauty, elegance, and grace you’ll find in this artistic sport.

Brad is a photographer focusing mostly on aerial photography. However, he’s not that much into architecture or landscape shots but rather focuses on portraits. He experiments with negative space, symmetry, and leading lines, and you’ll find his work very clean, simple, and soothing. He often photographs sports players like divers, tennis players, synchronized swimmers, gymnasts, and ballet dancers.

As I mentioned, Brad’s latest project is all about synchronized swimming. Titled Water Geomaids, this series invites you to experience yet another intimate and unique perspective of this graceful sport. And it’s just in time for the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

“I was surprised at the lack of imagery capturing the shapes and patterns that synchronized swimmers create,” Brad explains. This was one of the driving forces that made him start this project. He knew that synchronized swimming would align perfectly with his minimalistic, balanced aesthetic. And indeed, looks like artistic swimmers were the perfect subject for Brad’s project.

To create Water Geomaids, Brad teamed up with a Sydney-based synchronized swimming team choreographed by Katrina Ann. She is a former competitor who has competed at the Commonwealth Games and in multiple World Championships. “Artistic swimmers spend hours every day working to achieve perfection,” Katrina said. “With Brad’s eye for detail, perspective and creativity, we were able to showcase our hard work that is often lost to the naked eye.” So, it wasn’t difficult to convince her and her team to participate in the project.

Water Ballet

Like many great projects, this one also began with brainstorming and ideas. Brad relied on different artistic sports, not just synchronized swimming, which inspired him to draw out the geometric shapes he wanted to form on paper and create in the pool.

Based on his drawings, Brad worked together with Katrina in order to bring the drawings to life. “When working Katrina, our aim was to cherry-pick static positions from routines that build repetition of form and geometric sequences,” Brad explains. “80% is planned, 20% is impromptu,” he adds, concluding that “no matter the amount of planning that goes into it, there will always be an unplanned frame that looks awesome and couldn’t possibly have been planned. That is the embodiment of art.”

As I mentioned, Brad has photographed different sports from above before embarking on this project. He plans to release a picture book to showcase all the sports he has captured over the past three years, and it will be the first book of its kind. Until it’s published, enjoy more of these magical photos below. And of course, follow Brad’s work on his website and Instagram.

Waterlily

Staircase

Pearls

Parasol Peek

Octopetala

Form

Water Jewel

Emerge

Division

Diamond

Circle of Synchro

Binder

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Abstract aerial photos show beauty of the Earth shaped by water New OK Go video features 567 perfectly synchronized printers Florida_Spring_Swimming_Natural_Lazy_RiverTaking photos at Florida’s amazing springs – Swimming in a natural lazy river Aerial 8K 360° footage shows the beauty and power of Icelandic volcano lava flow

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: aerial, aerial perspective, aerial photography, Brad Walls, Swimming, synchronized swimming

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Canon reported to bring autofocus tilt-shift lenses to RF mount this year
Two A7R V spec sheets “leak” but they’re a bit difficult to believe »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy