"Kamchatka won't let go", says photographer Igor Shpilenok, who recently returned from photographing Steller's sea eagles on the southern tip of the peninsula. From his igloo, Shpilenok was able to observe and photograph the hundreds of birds that gather there each winter to gorge on salmon

Steller's sea eagles are found only along a narrow coastal strip around the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula and are threatened by poaching, increased human presence, pollution, lead poisoning, overfishing, and oil development. "Maybe with my photographs," Shpilenok hopes, "I can show people the magnificence of this enormous bird and evoke in them the desire to preserve it for future generations."

Shpilenok travels across Russia, documenting its relatively unknown system of protected areas and particularly enjoys working in Kamchatka, a region best known for its high density of volcanoes and associated volcanic phenomena. As well as the eagles, it boasts an abundance of brown bears and the world's greatest diversity of salmon.

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