Realm of the Pigmy Seahorse-shot with film

Just got my copy of this Sweet book. Constantinos Petrinos did a super job on it.

After spending a month in Indonesia shooting underwater from Sorong to Bali this book really rings true. A great bunch of photos-very well put together. And the whole thing was shot on film. This is a fairly recent book so film seems to be alive and working for some still. Mark

I agree it is an excellent book. Particularly because there is a strong link between the narrative and the images, which is rarely the case in most picture books.

But it is not new. I think it was published in 2001 - and actually most of the images were taken in 1998 and 1999. In fact one of Constantinos best known images - the pygmy in the book - won Silver in Antibes in 1997, so it must have been taken earlier than that. But I think the main shoot for the book was in 1998 as his octopus in the shell - from that shoot - was HC at WPoTY in 1999.

But regarding film vs digital I agree! The resolution of books hasn't changed. And if film could do it then - then it can still do it now. It shows that it is eye and skill of the photographer than produces great and lasting images - not how many megapixels they have or even if they have megapixels at all.

Alex

Constantinos came to California and did a presentation for the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) about 5 +/- years ago that inspired me so much, I had to go to Lembeh. Last year (thanks to NCUPS California Beach Dive Photo Comp) we went to North Sulawesi and Lembeh and it was every bit as amazing as Constantinos presented it to be, both in his presentation and the book.

I would recommend the book and a trip to the Lembeh Straits to any diver/uw photographer.

Best,

Kathy Mendes

On the original topic - Planete Mers - published last year was shot entirely with film (although scans were run through photoshop) and makes an even more compelling case than R.o.t.P.S.

Alex