The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

I was sitting inside watching golf on the television when it dawned on me, "Why am I sitting inside watching golf on the television?" I have been noticing a wasp's hole near where I park every day and have been saying to myself, "Self, you should mount that excellent Sigma 70mm macro lens on your camera and see if you can't capture that dangerous rascal one of these days."  I have been saying that for weeks . . . so . . . no time like the present.

Taking a photo of wasps is not a very smart thing to do, really.  You are so scared of getting stung that most of your shots are blurred because of the shaking camera.  In addition, wasps are shy creatures:  I waited way too long in scorching heat and melting humidity and all I got was this this little guy peeping out of his wasp hole at me for 15 minutes.  Oh well . . . . there's plenty more in the garden to look at this beautiful morning.

There had been a heavy rain last night (like EVERY night for the past two weeks), and there was still a lot of moisture on everything . . .

It's fun walking around in the garden with a macro lens!  My Sigma DG 70mm f2.8 Macro lens is about as good as it gets for this kind of close-up work.

A very tiny world magnified inside this single drop!

The light was clear and very low . . . and passed through these red fronds.  The dew drops were on the back side of these!  Amazing!

Deep in the undergrowth . . . little gems.

There was so much to see this morning!  I lost my breath when I saw this.

Deep down at the bottom of the garden little magnifying lenses point out additional detail.  Wonderful.

A single dew drop crowns this magnificent red bud-with-a-flowing-bud.

It didn't take long for the sun to dry off the dew from these red flowers.  It was 90+ degrees and humidity 90%+ as well.

The rains blew a lot of leaves off the trees . . . at first I thought it looked messy . . . but then I looked closer!

I love the sparkle of this pink leaf.

A sensuous palm frond, vaguely human.

With all the rain we have been having over the past several months, everything is growing like crazy.

Not only is everything growing like crazy, it is growing everywhere!  The variety of plant life growing on this garden path stone is incredible.

An old dead tree stump had new lichens growing on it.  WOW! What planet did this come from?

Another strange lichen.  I wish I had some extension tubes for my macro set-up . . . guess I'll go to the camera shop this afternoon!

This is about the maximum magnification I can get without an extension tube on my macro lens.  This is at 100%, no crop.

Our star fruit (Carambola) tree is starting to drop fruit.  Pretty tasty, but a strange texture . . . .

Snail Love . . . . mating at the bottom of the garden!

Oh!  So that's where the Chinese stone garden lantern went!

I noticed this flowing  thorn bush before I went into the house . . . and noticed that I hadn't noticed how beautiful the stalks were!

* 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.

It is the rainy season in Bangkok now.  It has rained some every day for about three weeks now, making my garden path very beautiful.

In the morning, everything is covered with a thick dew.  The humidity is above 90%, and the temperature is above 90(f).

We have a spirit house for the spirits that lived here before we built our home, like most Thai houses. We tend our spirit house, and people it with spirit house folk: dancers, maids, gardeners, and hangers-on.

There was a new lotus flower opening this morning.  It set the tone for the day.

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.