The famous photograph of a flock of flamingos by blogger Azamat Sarsenbayev appeared in the Japanese quarterly magazine Hoppoken. It was used to illustrate an article on the potential of ecotourism in Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. Sarsenbayev became famous for his videos about the nature of western Kazakhstan. His video with pink flamingos, which traditionally fly to Lake Karakol in Mangystau region, gained attention on social media.
“I was just doing it from the heart. Of course, our city and the region itself are developing. I told them that we have a lot of animals from the Red Data Book, including seals, argali and mouflons. I also said that nature in Mangystau region and Kazakhstan as a whole is beautiful. I received a lot of offers, not only from Japan, but also from France, the United States, and several countries in Europe and Australia. Many people called, contacted me via messenger. Some of the U.S. magazines wanted to buy the copyright from me. I think that if I have beautiful videos, I better distribute them and give permission to use them to all publications. I’ve a lot of plans. For example, I want to film seals in Kendirli. I want to go to the reserves and take pictures of mouflons, saigas and argali,” said videographer Azamat Sarsenbayev.
