Summary edit

THE “ENDEMIC” BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER . Saturday, 16 April 2011 15:05 Meirafe Birhane ..“If there is a war in the country, it is obvious that there will not be any tour guiding business. However, I am born to be a photographer and I will drag myself into war if I have to, to take some pictures,” says Aziz Ahmed, a bird-loving photographer and a tour guide operator. The enthusiastic young man started taking photos of birds four years ago and he currently has pictures of a collection of 612 species of birds. According to some data, it is believed that there are 862 known species of birds, of which 23 are considered to be endemic to Ethiopia and of which Aziz has photographed 16.

Using his three hundred thousand birr Nikon D300 with a 200mm-400mm lens, he has snapped around 147,000 pictures of Ethiopian hair-styles, wild animals, roads, birds, transportation systems, waterfalls, and much more. “Capturing images of birds has never been easy. They fly if they hear any sound that would make them suspect trouble. They’re sometimes found in thorny bush plants, a spot which is completely uncomfortable for a photographer to take pictures. Nevertheless, in my experience, I make bird noises or I play recorded bird noises from my mobile and the birds will finally fly out and I get a chance to take some pictures”, says the 28-year-old young man. Aziz can make three types of bird noises that help him communicate with 75 percent of the birds in this country.

The bird lover started traveling around the country when he was 10 years old with his father Ahmed Mohamed, who was a professional hunter. Unfortunately, his father was mauled to death 13 years ago by a lion 380 kilometers north-east of Addis Ababa, in a place called Gewane, in the southern part of the Afar region. At the age of 23 he began a touring agency (Zugarat), where he met the people who would inspire him to begin his photography career.

He remembers a foreign lady who inspired him to buy a professional camera. “I captured bird images by my mobile phone and showed them to the lady. She also showed me hers and I found the pictures that she shot were so impressive and attractive. That was the moment that I decided to sell my car and buy a camera,” says Aziz. Finally deciding to sell his car, Aziz bought the camera a year and a half ago. After he bought the camera, his friends started calling him “the endemic”. “I got that nickname for the fact that I sold my four-wheel-drive car for my expensive camera,” asserts the young photographer.

Paying some attention to his work, one can witness its magnificence. Aziz has never put his works for sale or show. However, he has recently decided to organize a photographic exhibition and is planning to display his works in about a month and a half.

Aziz has traveled across 80 percent of the country and his favorite species of bird is the eagle. As one thinks about an eagle, the first thing that comes to in mind is a large powerful bird of prey, swooping down and snatching up its victim, or maybe a beautiful and noble bird with very likable qualities. Actually, eagles are all of that and more, according to some studies. In fact there are about 59 different species of eagles throughout the world, and they can be found on every continent except Antarctica. As members of the same species, the 59 different eagles share a lot of things in common. They are all raptorial predators, excellent fliers, and they all have excellent vision. However, it may come as a surprise that eagles come in all sorts of sizes and colors. This is why the young bird photographer has chosen the species. “I have captured 50 images of the type of eagles called raptor. They live in high altitudes and in order for one to capture images with its different actions, it is a must to stay around their living area for at least seven days,” says Aziz.

The photographer takes photos of birds from a distance of 20 meters to 100 meters. According to Aziz, some parts of the country like Bale, Negele, Wendo Genet, Bishangari, and Debre Libanos are the most renowned sites for bird watch. “However, there are more places around the borders of the country where, I believe, there are many species of birds,” he adds.

According to the photographer, this job has never been easy, as he has experienced plenty of challenges during his work. Whenever he goes into a forest to take photos of birds, he always places signs to prevent him from getting lost. The signs could be cutting some branches off of trees, remembering mountains, remembering the sun's position or tying pieces of cloth. He once traveled to Humera, a place that is found some 991 kilometers from Addis Ababa. As he is a very sharp listener and has a good vision for birds, he saw a type of bird that is called the Lizard Buzzard. “This type of bird has been seen only once in Djibouti, four times in Eritrea, and once in Sudan. In ten years or so the bird has never been seen in Ethiopia and I had the opportunity to take its picture,” says Aziz. However, as he followed the bird far from the camp, he got lost and was drenched by heavy rain. “I tried to protect my camera from the rain but it was impossible. I tried to return to the camp site since it was getting dark by using the signs I put up but I couldn’t see them because they were destroyed by the rain. I had a very hard time getting back to the campsite, but I finally saw a light from the camp and I made it there,” remembers the bird photographer and never forgets the struggle he had from the mud, complete darkness, the thorns, and ditches.

He will also never forget the day he faced a huge black cobra snake. “I was following a bird called half-collared kingfisher and I stepped into a small but stiff thorny bush. I heard a snake and when I turned around a huge black cobra snake was poised and ready to strike. The good thing about wild animals is they will not attack you unless you started it. So I froze for few minutes and it was gone, because it knew that I was not there to hurt it.”

As the passionate photographer says, he will never quit on working as a bird photographer. Though his family and his girl friend do not like much what he does and think it is very dangerous for him, he never had the thought to stop photographing birds, the passion he can never live without.

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