I admire them. I consider synchronized swimming to be one of the hardest, most complicated sports. It doesn’t just demand efficient swimming technique of speed swimmers, flexibility of gymnasts, endurance and strength of long distance runners, coordination and cooperation of team sports but also elegance of dancers.
Partly SPORT, partly ART, completely AWESOME!
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Me at the top :) I first took interest in synchronized swimming during 2012 London Olympics. I was curious how difficult it might be to shoot it given the fact that I had experience as a dance photographer. I admit, I expected it to be more or less similar to dance photography.
More than two years passed before I was professionally engaged in synchro-swimming photo shoot.
Since then, I shot thousands of synchro photos and I learned that it’s very different to any dance style I knew. Although basic principles of photography are universally valid, I had to adapt myself to different clues, and above all to different dynamics and development of their motion.
Synchronized swimming is a sport and as such it is about competitions, but there is more than that. There has been a nice tradition of Christmas Shows performed by Synchronized swimming team of Palacky University Sports Club. First half of their themed programme consists of several competiton routines and the other half is choreographed specifically for the occasion. It is worth mentioning that they cover almost one and a half hour of lively and entertaining show with swimmers from just one team (many of them appearing (and hiding under water, :D ) many times - stretching their limits).
They also use some stage lighting which is rarely used in combination with synchronized swimming. All this make their Christmas show quite unique and special.
I used all my experience and abilities to craft the photos of their Christmas Show 2017 bellow in an attempt to match the artistry and the professionalism of these talented swimmers and couches, who I admire.
Though I attentively covered all three shows I want to convey the mood rather than every moment of every routine here. This is just a narrow selection. I'll publish the other interesting photos on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/kalop.eu later.
