Looking at Dmitry Kokh photographs and videos of polar bears off the northeast coast of Russia, it's hard to believe he's not a professional photographer. Since he posted them to his website and Instagram account he's been overwhelmed.
"WOW! I don't understand what's going on because I'm just a simple guy not looking for fame," Kokh said. "I'm kind of an introvert, I just love to take pictures. It's my hobby, I've been doing this for six or seven years."
Kokh runs an IT company in Moscow and is not a professional photographer but his polar bear pictures might be changing that.
"These polar bear pictures became viral... I'm buried alive under email," he said.
The pictures were taken at an abandoned Soviet weather station on an island off the coast of Chukotka, Russia. Dmitry was on board a ship that was waiting out a storm.
"We saw this weather station from the boat and saw something in the windows, Kokh said. "We saw 20 bears occupied this weather station. It was completely unreal."
To capture the images he used special blades on a drone, always respecting the polar bears.
"My first priority is no disturb tactics," he said. "When I see I'm disturbing the animal I'm moving away."
CBS 8 asked if he was surprised at how calm the bears were?
"They thought it was a buzzing seagull and they let you come really close," Kokh said.
Some of his other photos have won awards including one of a sperm whale off the Azores Islands and a selfie with a stellar sea lion.
"These stellar sea lions, they do crazy things," Kokh said. "They surround you, they hug you, they play, that's funny"
See Dmitry Kokh's work on his website and Instagram.