Probably the most spectacular Antarctic subject for wildlife photographer is the Leopard Seal. Antarctica and surrounding waters is the only place in the world where this mammal can be met. It is called a leopard seal due its characteristic spots on skin, but after spending some time with the animal, I found it to be more similar to a dog than to a leopard. There are numerous leopard seals around Antarctica seaside areas, and you may often see them sleeping on small icebergs. They seem to be very lazy and uninterested in jumping into the water to help us in our photographic endeavours, but as soon as they get in, they transform into extremely fast moving and scary monster. However it sounds, with a bit of luck though, you can meet the leopard seal while diving and play with it, making spectacular pictures. To give you some feeling how close I was, making these pictures, they were made with 14mm lens, in distance of 0-30 cm from teeth of 3 meters long and 500 kgs heavy animal!
