The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

Dr. Jeff, Where do you live? What's it like there?

This is Chaengwattana Road in the northern suburbs of Bangkok.  It is a fast growing area with even faster growing traffic.  When I moved out here 14 years ago you could shoot a canon ball down Chaengwattana and not hit anybody.  Drive west about three miles from here and you come to my house. These two photos were taken from the same spot, facing 180 degrees apart.

The Thai Government has relocated most of the bureaucracy from the beautiful Thai style old buildings downtown to bright and architecturally plain modern buildings out in my part of town.  This has caused the traffic. You are looking east here. But I forgot to say . . . that I LOVE Bangkok!

The entrance to the temple grounds was a thing of beauty filled with spiritual promise.

My wife (Yoo), brother-in-law (Vichai), and niece (Par) and I went to Saraburi province today to make merit.

We participated in ceremonies and left donations.

There was much beauty everywhere we went.  The smell of incense filled the air.

It was a day reflecting on what the Buddha said: wake up.

Who designs these cave temples? Fantastic!

The entrance to the underground temple.

One can partake of Chinese numerology cards in the underground temple.

The underground temple had some wonderful Buddhas.

It was cool inside the cave.

It is such a surprise to find Buddas in a cave.

The cave extended quite a distance under the cliff.

Down and around we went.

It seemed around every turn a new Buddha grotto could be found.

Someone is tending all of these subterranean altars.

Yes.  The someone is a "cave hermit" and this is an alter to him.

This is the only underground Chedi I have ever seen . . . . and I have been in many underground and cave Buddhist temples.

Some of the Buddha altars were quite spooky.

Even though it was a hot day, fan sales were slow in the temple courtyard.

As this was a special day for worshiping, merchants set up a makeshift markets outside the temple gates.

Beans, lentils, and split peas are in season.

There is nothing like Thai Chinese Temple Roastin' Ears (TCTRE) on a 100 degree day.  Trust me.

The most moving part of the day was passing out alms to the aged indigent poor of the area.  It was humbling and heart-rendering.

Only two hours drive from Bangkok are the "mountains" of Khao Yai; a region of vineyards and craggy hills.

Lovely morning light on the PB Valley Vineyards, Khao Yai, Thailand.

Is this France or Thailand?

Napa Valley maybe?  maybe not.

It was harvest time.

It is the beginning of the "Damn Hot and Damn Dry Season" in Thailand. When we left Bangkok it was still "only" in the upper 80s(f), but when we returned it was in the upper 90s(f).

After the sun set, a full tropical moon rose.

I rose before dawn to feel the environment, thick with humid mist, come alive.

The morning light revealed some new natural wonders.

Morning dew on red hibiscus.

Translucent yellow in the morning dew.

Jasmine: sweet smelling morning bloom.

The area around our bungalow was nicely planted with a variety of beautiful plants.

As the first light struck them these blossoms opened before my eyes.

Everywhere floral beauty!

The morning sun came through the garden at a steep angle, sometimes lighting the flowers from behind.

What amazing ideas this plant has about reproduction!

The day eventually brightened.

I happened to be at my favorite camera store (!) and I happened to notice they had a (used) lens I happened to be looking for (!) and it happened to be at a good price (!), and it happened: I bought it!

So I took the aforementioned new (used) lense out for a test spin in the garden . . . to see wht it would do.

And as usual, there is always new beauty appearing out of the blue.

Like these African Violets I had never seen before . . . .

. . . . or these otherworldly waxy red things with a collection of white sticky protuberances jutting out of the top.  I was afraid to get my head too close because they were pulsating like something out of the movie Alien!

Too sweet red buds.

The new (used) Sigma DG OS 18-200mm performed admirably in all kinds of lighting . . . and the optical stabilizer (OS) actually worked.  Although this is not a perfect lense according to the reviews (although it is perfect for my purposes; these 850 pixle-width images for this web blog), this could be a sweet 'walking around' lens for me.

This is a very difficult lighting situation: bright color and deep shadow.  It came out pretty good . . . and at 200mm, it was great.

A trip to my garden wouldn't be complete without a photo or two of my beloved Lotus Flowers.

Yes, all-n-all, I am very happy with the new (used) lens.

During the past five days Alan Morton and I took 32 high school students from the International School Bangkok (ISB), as a part of their Global Citizens Week, into a poor neighborhood of Bangkok to do a community service project.  The project involved painting a pre-school for poor children as a part of the Human Development Foundation's (Mercy Center) poverty reduction efforts in Thailand.  A number of years ago a large conference (coincidentally in Bangkok) met and determined that the very best "development dollar" was the dollar used to "keep a girl in school through the 6th  grade," the consequence of which was lowered poverty, disease, infant mortality, and the lessening of the "cycle of poverty."  In Bangkok, Father Joe Maier, an old Height Ashbury Hippy (like myself) who founded the Human Development Fooundation (HDF), realized the issue related to keeping poor girls in school longer was the "eldest daughter syndrome" -- a situation where young girls drop out of school to take care of still younger siblings while their single mother is out earning money to support the family -- and therefore become trapped themselves in the "cycle of poverty."  The pre-school we painted represents a way to keep "older" girls in schools by taking care of the young children while the older girls are in school. Our painting will help maintain the infrastructure of this useful and successful program.  This is the 17th such HDF school Alan Morton and the ISB students have painted for Father Joe over the past 14 yeas in Bangkok.

The hard working students sanded, scraped, and cleaned all the surfaces in prepartation for painting.

Once the surface preparation was competed, the paint was applied.

The school cooks supplied us with delicious Thai food for lunch.

We prepared and  painted one half of the one-room school while the the students were in the other half of the school -- then switched sides.  The 107 students of this school were very happy with the brightness and cleanness of their "New School."

It was a very big job, made harder by the complexity of painting the slatted walls in the heat and humidity of Bangkok. But, as they say, many hands made light work!

Our student painters came from 10 different countries.

This child was very curious about what was happening on the other side of her classroom!

We used sweet pastel colors to make the "Nursery School" look like a nursery school.

The finished school looked great . . . and will be protected from the elements for at least 10 years.

As always, I couldn't help myself from taking photos of amazing images.

What is it about corrugated tin roofing that evokes the image of Poverty? The view from the school kitchen.