The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

I recently spent eight days in Indonesia, three days in and around the capitol Jakarta, and five days in and around Yogyakarta, in Central Java.  This young Indonesian tourist was in Jakarta.  Modern Jakarta.  I was as much a curosity as was this young Indonesian girl.

It was my first time in Jakarta, so a quick look through a borrowed Lonely Planet Guide to Indonesia led us to the old colonial Dutch quarter. There is not much left of the Dutch influence in Jakarta.

One can rent a bicycle and ride around the old Dutch settlement.  Interestingly, you also rented a matching sun hat.

There was a charming Old World feel here.

We went to a small cafe on the square and another waiter insisted I see the upstairs renovations.  Nice light, no?

Our waitress was as efficient as she was beautiful.

I was very interested in the carts, as usual. These carts are the subject of another entry elsewhere.

I am a big fan of photogenic dilapidation; Jakarta abounds in this particular subject matter.

Our driver dropped us off at a very, very local electronics mart - in old Chinatown.  We went looking for coffee and asked for directions everywhere until we found what we were looking for.  These people yelled in unison, "No Coffee Here!"

We were finally directed to a long, hot workmen's "luncheria" where, I am sure, there had never been a tourist before.  We were the sudden entertainment . . . and the object of much curiosity and rib jabbing among the Indonesian customers.

Jakarta is a huge sprawling city with monumental traffic snarls . . . "What, me worry?"

Every square inch of Jakarta is filled with somebody doing commerce . . . . some more happily than others.

It was my first trip to Jakarta, so I went to some of the "tourist spots" . . . and ran into other tourists there . . . duh! My visiting friends from Oregon, Jeff and Sharon are in the background.

I found a good excuse to go out on the road to try out my new Canon IS 24-105mm f4.0L lens with my new Canon 5D Mark II DSLR.

On the road with visiting friends Jeff & Sharon from Oregon.  This time we drive west out of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi Province where e visited the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai."

Many thousands of Dutch, British, Canadian, and American soldiers were killed in the building of the bridge and the "Death Railway" from the Thai coast up through Hell Fire Pass to the Burmese boarder. Many of the killed were buried here in an Allied Forces cemetery in Kanchanaburi.

There seemed to be many, many cemeteries in Kanchanaburi.  These are Thai Chedis at a Wat.

A Chedi forest.

The two hundred mile drive was through rough, dry hills dotted with many interest features, and typically strange development.

At the Hell Fire Pass Memorial there was an ostriche farm.

Hell Fire Pass, the route of the Death Railway from here to the Three Pagoda Pass and the Burmese boarder..

A fun thing to do on a road trip in Thailand is to turn off the main roads when you see tourist signs like "Tiger Temple." Tigers under construction.

We saw this fabulous hilltop Thai Wat from the road and turned in for a look see.

Strange hills at dusk in silhouette at the Wat.

The Wat had a special water Bikku.

We spotted this flower, some kind of a fly trap, growing from the trunk of a large tree. 

We arrived at the Burmese boarder just as it was getting dark and were turned back by Thai military personnel.  We drove back to the Nature Resort, rented a cabin that didn't have water, complained, and were given individual de lux cabins on a lake.  I awoke the next morning to geese in the fog.

The fog slowly lifted revealng a fantastic nature reserve . . .

. . . and this tree house.

We enjoyed "magic light" of the morning taking photographs of everything.

* In my tropical garden and around the house with my new Canon 5D Mark II and my trusty Sigma 70mm macro lens.  All shots were taken hand held with available light.  Here are the results.

It is the wet season and moss and mold is growing on everything, even my garden path.

All the foliage is healthy and lush.

It was an overcast day, so I am very satisfied with the low light performance of the 5D. There is so much new growth . . . unfurling all around the garden . . . secret growth.

Highly scented flowers are dropping now with the hope of propagation,  although some get waylaid.

Spiny textures everywhere.

Nothing is going to eat this one . . .

. . . or climb this one.

The polarizing filter helps cut the reflections for photos like this.

As the palms grow and their trunks expand, they shed this twine-like fiber. Very beautiful.

We have a small stand of "slow growing" bamboo too.

Shocking red.

The gloomy light left a wonderful mood in the garden.

Like most people in Thailand, we have, and maintain, a Spirit House. This is a maintenance detail.

There are so many beautiful things to see in the garden, like this lotus urn, but I want to go inside now.

Living and travelling in Asia means you accumulate little somethings.

Memories and talismans from here and there, for this and that.

If you don't know, don't ask.

We enjoyed building our home; so many materials from around the world either find their way to Bangkok, or are made here.

We live near Koh (Island) Kred, famous for it's red clay ceramics.

When we arrived home from Canada I noticed that one of the orchids in the garden had bloomed.  This particular Vanda orchid, a Vanda Pachara Delight, blooms only twice a year.

Orchids are extraordinarily interesting in the way that their textures and features mimic living creatures from the animal kingdom.

A close examination of an orchid petal reveals a tiny world of amazement.

As the shadows of a late afternoon crossed the orchids, strange orchid moods  arrived.

The sun struck the orchid at odd angles, revealing new detail as the minutes passed by.

Orchid reproductive anatomy.

I'm glad I bought that Sigma 70mm macro lens.

Reproduction of this amazing living entity takes place here.

When a person has lived in close proximity to the equator for over 25 years, as I have, they are easily amazed when encountering temperate rain forest flora. Vancouver's Stanley Park is flush with floral beauty.

The Rhododendrons were wet from a morning shower.

A small platoon of Rhododendron stamen surprises the morning.

Rhododendron flower clusters begin as a bud.

The path I followed was often lined with a froth of pink.

The pink froth array came in many varieties.

Rare white Rhododendrons could be seen here and there.

The wet forest floor hid some wet yellow blooms.

What is going on here? What is the ecological niche and counterpart of these magnificent reproductive parts?

Purple Chrysanthemums blossoms begin as these green bud clusters . . .

. . . and progress through this adolescent stage.

All of the forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America are completely colonized by the ubiquitous fern. Stanley Park is no exception.

Not every flower one encounters in these environs is neat, tidy, symmetrical . . .

. . . or friendly.