As a fellow Canadian, I get excited when other Canadians are acknowledged on the world stage. For the 2nd time in 4 years, Paul Nicklen won first prize in the Nature Stories category of the prestigious World Press Photo contest.

Nicklen, who grew up in a small Inuit community of 140 on Baffin Island, captured the 2007 prize for his vivid photo of a leopard seal hunt in Antarctica.

It was his second time in four years that he won the prize to boot!

You can view his award winning photos.

When you are there also take a peek at their other categories. They are absolutely amazing. The sad thing is outside the nature and sports categories, they are all generally death and destruction. Personally, I put myself through looking at them to keep my priorities in check. Here I am worrying about that I am going to get attacked by an optician downstairs when in other parts of the world, people are losing their kids to wars and natural disasters...