After more than a year covering the Arab Spring — struggling with intransigent bureaucracies, governments hostile to journalists and people who didn’t want to be photographed — Ed Ou was relieved to encounter a subject where images came easily.

Camel-jumping.

Yes.

Mr. Ou, 25, was in Yemen for The New York Times recently when, slightly bored by a presidential election that featured just one candidate, he decided to revisit the remote region of Tehama, which had been the site of one of his most memorable photographic experiences.

It was in 2009 while studying Arabic and photographing in Yemen that he first heard of men who jumped over camels.

“One day, I was visiting Tehama, and I almost did a double-take when someone said, ‘We jump over camels,’ ” said Mr. Ou, who is represented by Reportage by Getty Images. “I thought that my Arabic was at fault, and I had translated it wrong. I was like, ‘What do you do?’ And they said, ‘We jump over camels.’ So I went, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Ed Ou/Reportage by Getty

He came to Beit al-Faqih, a poor remote village with very friendly people. He got to know the villagers as they chewed qat all day, and then exactly at 5 o’clock, under perfect light, they lined up four to five camels next to each other. Taking running starts, the contestants, one after the other, sailed over the animals who were as tall as Mr. Ou. The jumpers, all members of the Zaranique tribe, had trained extensively.

Camel-jumping happens amid dancing and singing, during celebrations like weddings or during competitions. But when Mr. Ou visited last month, he found out that there had been few things to celebrate during the last year of turmoil in Yemen. And, accordingly, few camel-jumping events.

The Tehama region of Yemen, where the Zaranique tribe is found and where camel-jumping flourishes, is one of the poorest areas in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world.

“It’s a place that’s frozen in time even though it’s in the midst of this amazing change,” Mr. Ou said. “When I first visited Beit al-Faqih three years ago, there was no electricity, very little food, no running water and no cellphone coverage. And now it’s the same. The traditions stay preserved which is beautiful, but at the same time, it’s sad because there’s very little change in their lives.”

For Ed Ou’s video coverage of the jumpers, click here.

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