Realm of the Pygmy Seahorse is a book project that took approximately four years to complete. For the photography, I did several trips to the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The core expedition lasted 5 months.
I wanted to avoid juxtaposing nice photographs with little information because I believe that the reader nowadays wants to learn more about the subjects. Therefore, I devoted a lot of time doing research about the behaviour on the subjects in my photographs.
I also wanted to give answers to questions that I have had for years. For example, "how do crinoid shrimps manage to acquire the exact same colour as their host crinoid" or "is an octopus colour blind?"
David W. Behrens, who was the scientific editor, spent countless hours assisting me with the text in terms of scientific accuracy. His contribution and encouragement have been tremendous.
In the book you will find no poetry, a few jokes and a lot of scientific information about the behaviour of the subjects in the photographs. I hope you will enjoy it.