In a turbulent region of the world, an AP photographer finds a fisherman casting in swirling seas

BEIRUT (AP) — Photographer Hassan Ammar started his career with The Associated press in 2008, assigned to the Riyadh bureau in Saudi Arabia. Four years later, he moved to Cairo then to Beirut in 2015.

He has covered conflicts, sports and everyday life in the Middle East. He’s also been to the Olympics, World Cup and more around the world.

Here’s what he has to say about this extraordinary photo.

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Why this photo?

With the hot weather plus high humidity that hit Beirut, the Lebanese capital, I was looking for weather pictures almost every day. As I am a big fan of beach life, I go almost every day to the Beirut Corniche to walk. I keep my camera with me always.

It’s not easy in a small city like Beirut to find a new spot or a new angle for a good feature picture, so you need to work hard and have some luck. On this day, I decided to go to a rocky area along the coastline - in a hard to reach spot - with one camera and one lens.

How I made this photo

I arrived one hour before sunset, and I started looking for a good spot. I found some fishermen standing on a low rocky area with a good background ( the Sun). The light was excellent, and I made a couple of nice pictures. After a while, the waves become very strong, so I decided to change my spot. I went to another rocky spot that was higher than where the fishermen were standing. Because the waves were very strong, all the fishermen moved except for one.

At the first what caught my attention was the way the fisherman was standing at the rocky area. He was dealing professionally with the strong waves that were hitting him. I quickly noticed the movement of the waves. I knew I had my picture.

I used a 28 mm F2 Sony lens with a very slow shutter speed to show the movement of the waves. As I didn’t have a tripod, I had to hold my breath for long seconds many times to catches the picture I wanted.

Why this photo works

I believe with all news coming from Middle East, all the special conflict pictures from my colleagues, the fisherman picture was something different. The scene looked like a painting, peaceful and relaxing.

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