Parham Pourahmad stands in the hills of Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas, waiting for the perfect moment to snap a bird of prey in its natural habitat.
Suddenly, a Cooper’s hawk swoops down. It begins to claw apart a squirrel.
Pourahmad aims his Sigma 150-600mm lens and presses the shutter-release button on his Nikon D3500 to capture the brilliant scene.
“It was pretty surreal,” he recalled, in an interview with the Los Gatan, reflecting on the weeks it took to time the ideal shot. “I had been going to that park a lot in hopes of photographing those hawks with prey, and I eventually got the opportunity.”
The photo the Los Gatos resident, now 14, took that day would go on to win him multiple honors, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, put on by the Natural History Museum in London, for the 11-14 year old category.
Just like so many others who picked up new hobbies during the pandemic, Pourahmad began his photographic journey just before the world went into lockdown. He fell in love with the art of freezing the action of the natural world. Eventually, it became a way to express his love of wildlife. Spending time at parks and sanctuaries, he took many photos, including his photo of the hawk devouring its prey.
“Light and intimacy pull this photograph together,” chair of the jury Kathy Moran said in a statement posted on the Natural History Museum’s website. “The hawk and the squirrel are beautifully lit. The light feels like a spotlight; they’re so perfectly framed, and the way in which the hawk holds the squirrel feels more like an embrace than predation.”
Pourahmad picked up the camera for the first time in 2019, at the age of nine, while on vacation in Hawaii.
He remembers watching his mom snapping pictures of a cardinal.
“I asked her if I could take a few pictures,” he said. “Then, she taught me how to press the shutter button, everything like that.”
Even early on, Pourahmad was sure of his ability. He started entering competitions.
However, at first, this resulted in little success.
“I was really ambitious, probably, but I didn’t really win many awards or get published at the start,” he said. “But, I kept on getting better from there.”
After Pourahmad’s parents mentioned his hobby to his teachers, they began to give him tips.
He says he received a lot of support from two of his 5th grade teachers at Daves Avenue Elementary School.
“They encouraged me a lot from the very start,” he said. “They liked to look at my pictures and gave me tips, at the very start when I really had no idea what I was doing. That definitely helped there.”
Pourahmad’s parents took him to different locations during, and then after, the pandemic.
After four years of entering the Wildlife Photographer of the Year category, he finally got his win last year.
He’s won other accolades, too, such as the youth award and two selections in the Audubon Photography Awards, put on by the National Audubon Society, and in the California Watchable Wildlife Contest (twice for their bi-monthly winners: in September-October 2023 and then again in March-April 2024).
Collecting the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award was particularly memorable, as Pourahmad was flown out to London for the event.
While his pictures have an effortless quality to them, he says taking pictures of animals is one of the most challenging types of photography.
“You have to find your subject, and you have to keep up with them as they move around,” he said, adding you have to be patient to snap a great wildlife photo. “I like the process of finding the animals and getting close enough to them to get good photos.”
It’s kind of like a game, Pourahmad says.
Plus, he adds, getting to spend time around wildlife makes it all worth it.
Pourahmad says he’s looking forward to entering even more competitions in the days ahead.
