The Great Outdoors

Wonderball

This image was captured in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on a modest sports court hidden in one of the city’s residential districts. I used a DJI Mini 2 drone to take a series of overhead shots while a group of young people were playing basketball. The scene caught my eye not just for the motion, but for the expressive shadows it cast - full of energy, rhythm, and geometry.

The shoot was fully planned. I discovered this location through Google Maps and marked it for a morning session. Timing was essential: I chose around 10-11 AM, when the shadows would be neither too long nor too short - just right to amplify the visual contrast and compositional balance.

I took multiple shots, hovering patiently until I caught a moment where the players’ positions and their shadows aligned in a way that felt almost choreographed. Later, during post-processing in Photoshop, I transformed the raw photo by connecting parts of the frame to create a perfect circle - enhancing the symmetry and elevating the graphic nature of the image.

What I love most in this composition is the interplay of geometry and color - the saturated red and blue, the hard-edged shapes of the court, and the soft human presence that breaks the symmetry just enough to make it feel alive. There was no exact rule I followed to know when the image was finished - it was more of an inner click, like puzzle pieces falling into place.