The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

A nice early hot season day in Bangkok; a Saturday . . . time to go in to Bangkok to give up some blood at Bummrungrad Hospital for my doctor's appointment next week.  I always stand next to this window by the cashier's counter and admired the view . . . today I took a photo.

After the blood letting I was out on food in Bangkok.  I noticed my iPhone belt pouch was falling apart so I stopped at a sidewalk seamster's establishment to have it re-sewed.  Very handy.  Cost me 20 baht (US$0.60).

Since I had to "fast" before the blood sample, I walked over to La Monita Mexican Grille a few blocks away - starving.  I had never eaten there, but it came highly recommended.  I was very happy with the food (B+) and the incredible colors of the interior (NOT bumped up in PhotoShop!).  WOW!

I was running late, so I took a taxi to Siam Square area for my not-so-regular hair cut. Siam Square is across the street from the mammoth Paragon Mall and is a maze of covered alleys filled with interesting little shops.  This is the view from the SkyTrain platform.

All along the way, and I do mean all along the way, the temptation of that which is forbidden to cross my lips proliferates beyond imagination and in abundance, and I do mean beyond imagination. Solid sugar constuctions.

Inside The Machine.  I left my barber light headed and walked to the MBK Mall to a camera store I knew about.  I have been researching the purchase of a new lens, the Sigma 12-24 II . . . a wide zoom for a full frame camera like my Canon 50D Mark II.  They let me put it on my camera and go out in the mall to test its capabilities.  I took this picture.  I didn't buy it . . . I was not happy with this particular example.

In this part of Bangkok (Siam Center), where the SkyTrain runs, they have suspended a wide pedestrian walkway, a promenade, above the famous Bangkok Traffic.

People describe the effect as "living in the movie Blade Runner."

There is a surreal element about this urban environment.

I took a short-cut through several air-conditioned malls and then out on the elevated promenade to the CentralWorld Mall (burned down during "The Troubles" a couple of years ago).  I had to marvel at the amazing contrasts to be found in Bangkok: messy poverty and post-modern grandeur.

I checked out the photo stors at CentralWorld mall without seeing anything I liked.  The glitz here is on a monumental scale.

There is something very disturbing about naming a department store "Zen" . . . even if it is a Japanese department store.  "Counter-Zen" would be more like it!  In the CentralWorld Mall, Bangkok, February 25, 2012.

As the sun was setting over Bangkok, I made my way through a few more interconnected malls to the Intercontenential Hotel where I shagged a taxi home.  It was good "to out amung'em."