User:Ashpil/Igor Shpilenok

Igor Petrovich Shpilenok (born February 28, 1960, in Trubchevsky District, Bryansk Oblast) is a Russian nature photographer. He was the creator and first director of the zapovednik Bryansky Les. He is an author of various photobooks about nature and wilderness. He is a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

In 2006 and 2009 he won BBC's "Urban and Garden Wildlife" award in their Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. He is also a laureate of multiple Golden Turtle trophies in the "Harmony of Life" category- in 2006 for his photograph "Dawn over the Kronotsky River" and in 2007 for his photograph "River Patrol."

Biography
Igor Shpilenok was born in 1960, Bryansk Oblast, Russia. He graduated from Bryansk State University. He started photography early, as a 13 year old, when he was able to convince his grandmother to buy him a camera. In the following 15 years he lived and worked in the zapovednik Bryansky Les, and after that his main location of work and photography was Kamchatka. He spends months in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve looking for the perfect moment to photograph animals and birds. He takes a lot of pictures of bears from a short distance, writes a blog on LiveJournal, where he writes about the ways the animals act, the places he's visited and where he currently is. In 2012 Igor's blog won the "Bell(?) of The Year" award in the "Picture of the Year" category.

In the summer of 2007 Igor Shpilenok left the Valley of Geysers right before a giant landslide which shut many geysers and closed up the valley. He was one of the first back- to attempt to explain the phenomenon. Following that he released a book, which was dedicated to the Valley of the Geysers and it's newest story.

Igor's works have been published in many multicultural and Russian magazines, including Smithsonian, National Wildlife, GEO and BBC Wildlife.

On April 10th, 2013 Igor Shpilenok started his journey across Russia on his truck, the Russian GAZ Sadko. The goal of this nationwide trip- from the Bryansky Les to Kamchatka- was to promote Russia's zapovedniks.

His wife- Laura Williams- is an activist of World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF). He has four children- Tikhon(1980-2016), Peter, Andrei and Makar. The oldest son, Tikhon, was a director of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve. His brother- Nikolai Shpilenok- is also a wildlife photographer. His younger brother, Dmitrii, is a producer and director of science-oriented films.