The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

BBBBBRRRRRRRRR!  . . . . .   and Beautiful!

Just outside of Christchurch.

Wonderful winter coastal landscaped.  A nice mood.

Friendly Gulls.

We're off to the South Island of New Zealand for a photographic expedition.  Watch this space for photo updates sent from my iPhone on the very cool SQUARESPACE iPhone app.

It could be a bit breezy and wet on the South Island . . . . . . but we wanted a winter vacation. Current Christchurch weather should be a high of 12c and a low of 1c. Bbbbbrrrrrrr.  The plan is to stay in a few B&Bs, a farm stay, and hotels.

The satellite image is most intriguing . . . . now to see it at ground level! Interestingly, the southern tip of the South Island of New Zealand is at 45 degrees South latitude . . . . and I am from Oregon in the USA which is at 45 degrees North latitude.

I went to the wonderful country of Jordan in 2008 and took literally thousands of photos.  The light in February was wonderful. I have recently been going through my photos from that trip and have been adding some to my Jordan Photo Bank. Go HERE for more.

Petra, even with tourists, is a MUST SEE in one's lifetime.

Jordan is full of interesting sites to see.  This is the interior of the fort where the real  Lawrence of Arabia lived for three years. Jordan had fascinating Biblical, Crusader, Islamic, Judaic and WWI and WWII sites. Go here for more.

I have just loaded new photos from The Congo.  At Christmas 1984, my friend Dwain Bloyer and I boarded the Col. Ebeya river boat for an 11 day trip from Kinshasa, on the lower Congo River, up river to Kisangani, on the upper Congo: a 1200 mile continuous run of the great river. It was an extraordinary life experience.  Unfortunately, when I moved to Bangkok from Charlottesville, Virginia in 1996 2/3 of my shipment was stolen (in Virginia), including my personal photos and slides of my Congo travels.  Fortunately, Dwain had a set of slides from our trip (although no where near as good as my lost photos - hahaha!) and, when on a vacation to Bangkok a couple of years ago with his wife Sharon, brought them to me.  I had them hastily scanned and have just today gone through them to see if they are good enough for posting.  They are not of a quality I normally accept, but as a "record" of those experiences they are priceless.  I have added many more in my Travel Photo Bank: Congo at this LINK.

The Col. Ebeya.  Thanks to Jeff Shey for this photo, another Jeff who took the Col. Ebeya up the Congo River.  He has a great web site HERE.

The massive river boat and barge train in the background is the Col. Kokolo, the sister ship to the Col. Ebeya  I took up the Congo River for 11 days in 1984.

That's me on the deck of the Col. Ebeya surveying the produce.  The ship was actually a waterborne city of 3000 people that moves up through the Congo jungle region buying and selling goods as it went. The decks became fuller and fuller the further up into The Heart of Darkness we went.

The scenes along the river banks were breathtaking in their humanity.

Timeless Congo River Life.

The lovely and wonderful Congolese people. For more photos of my Congo experiences, please visit this LINK.

Samut Songkran is about an hour's drive from my house.  It is the home of the famous Floating Market - a tourist favorite.  There are actually three major floating markets in the Samut Songkran region.  There were literally thousands of people there . . . but I only saw three real foreign tourists all day. Apparently the recent troubles in Thailand have scared the tourists away.  That is a shame.  The Floating Market is a really beautiful and fantastically interesting place to spend the afternoon

The Floating Market is actually a real functional local market built along both sides of an estuarial canal with sales being made both from the old wooden shops that line the canal, and directly from the boats that ply the canal with goods from the farms and sea.

The Floatng Market, though popular with tourists, is a living market.

Life in Thailand as it has been for thousands of years.

A traditional klong (canal) boat and boatman in traditional clothing.

The town of Samut Songkran is estuarial, so seafood finds its way easily to the grills of the boat vendors.

Timeless river trading -- the easiest way to move goods from source to market.

The shops that line the canal are old.  Many are kept in beautiful Old Thai style. This one is actually a "Home Stay" hotel.

Many beautiful touches of beauty adorned the homes.

A young Thai Tom Sawyer.

Everything from gnarly fruit . . . . . .

. . . to steamed fish . . .

. . . to grilled squid . . .

. . . to colored cotton candy in plastic cups was for sale at the Samut Songkran Floating Market.