RUNNER-UP CATEGORY BIRDS
Zakariya Omran | Long Necks

Name: Zakariya Omran
Picture title: Long Necks
Category: Birds
Nationality: Kingdom of Bahrain
Occupation: I’m not a full-time Photographer, l have another Job to work with.

Technical information
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm f 5.6 Lens
EXIF: iso 100 200-500@210mm f/9  0.80s
Accessories: I did not use anything except a piece of cork. I placed the camera on it to stabilize the camera and then moved the camera slowly from bottom to top.

Zakariya Omran​ says:

At the end of 2018, after completing the production of the film (Babe of the Eastern Neighborhood), which talked about the desert owl and its role in preserving the ecosystem, I wanted to produce another film, this time about the Socotra cormorant, as the Hawar Islands are considered the largest colony of these birds in the country. The Middle East. Hawar Islands are located on the southern side of the Kingdom of Bahrain. They are protected military islands, and to be able to photograph Socotra cormorants on these islands, you need a permit for that, which is somewhat difficult. Therefore, I decided to search for other places where these birds breed in the islands of Bahrain because I know the Jarim Islands, which are three islands located north of the Kingdom of Bahrain and 20 kilometers away from the northern coast in the middle of the sea, and because I have also been visiting these islands since 2016 in the summer, where Tern and egrets breed on one of the islands, and since that year to this day I have been observing these birds in the summer.

Therefore, I decided to search in the winter this time, knowing that Socotra cormorants breed in the winter, as these islands are considered a crossing point for many seabirds. When I arrived at the central island, I was surprised by a huge number of Socotra cormorants incubating their eggs, as I was the first to discover these birds breeding on this island. (Note that all bird photographers and interested people in Bahrain believe that the Socotra cormorant breeds only on the Hawar Islands. I have proven that there are other islands on which this bird breeds.)

From the end of 2018 to 2020, I used to visit these islands during the breeding season of the Socotra cormorants, as the season begins from September to January, and these birds migrate to other regions after they begin to fly. I have not stopped visiting the Garm Islands since 2016, in the summer I follow the terns and in the winter the Socotra cormorants.

At the beginning of the year 2022, everyone was surprised by news reported by the local press stating that the Al-Jarim area and the three islands in it would be transformed into industrial areas and tourist resorts. Then I decided to shed light on these birds that make these islands their home every year they breed. Hence the idea of this picture (with the length of the neck) came, meaning that these birds are observing the unknown fate that awaits them by turning these islands into tourist resorts. The idea was to photograph Socotra cormorants with a slow shutter while moving the camera up to reveal the birds’ necks, as if they were monitoring the place looking for any intruder who wanted to seize this space and turn it into a tourist resorts.

Lately, for most of my photos, I use different shutter aperture techniques, depending on each photo and the subject I want to highlight in the photo.Therefore, I used the slow shutter technique in this photo, where I also moved the camera slowly from bottom to top, to illustrate the length of the necks of the Socotra cormorants.