The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

We couldn't stand sitting around the house worrying abut whether the canal (klong) next to our house would rise and flood us out . . . so when an invitation came from good friends to go to Jomtien Beach to sit on the beach and play golf with them, we jumped at the chance.

Our friends happen to own the Siam Country Club, where my wonderful wife played for two days . . .

. . . . and a beautiful oceanfront condo . . .

. . . with a very beautiful Thai style interior . . .

. . . a very, very high Thai aesthetic at work here.

I roamed the beach and adjacent fishing port with my trusted 5D Mark II.

While walking down the beach, I came across students from the Thai-Austrian School, who had walked across the street from their school for a break on the beach.  Seeing I had a camera, they HAD to pose.

Thee are many, many expatriates living in this part of Thailand (Pattaya area), including many newly affluent Russians. They all like to sit under a parasol and drink beer all day.

Without a doubt, the number one beach chair.

Or one chair for yourself, and one each for your seven friends.

At the beach there were Hot Dog Kite Surfers (HDKS) showing off at all hours of the day.

Some of them were very good.

Some of them were excellent!

It was a family beach.  These boys were having lots of fun.

I could not make my mind up which photo to post of the boys in the surf . . . so here are both!

I remember doing this as a boy: just you and the sea.

On one end of the beach was an old fishing basin.

Very nautical, no?

I loved how the bows of so many boats lined up.  Beautiful.

Such a bright day . . . . with a polarizing filter on my camera . . . . and a mass of colorful Thai fishing boats.

There were workmen repairing the Jomtien pier, so I walked out in a supervisory capacity.

The Jomtien Pier, with a small tree, offered many photographic opportunities. This B&W is only OK.  I will work from the raw file for a better B&W shot.

Really, there was no reason to manipulate the image; it was quite wonderful as it came out of the camera.

Then again, with a slightly different exposure . . . . it becomes very moody.

It was a day for moody, almost Biblical, skies.

Heavily back-lit, this person in a tube gave the impression of floating in moonlight when converted to B&W.  Nice. Strange.

I woke up early on the second day and went down to the sea.  A fisherman was out casting his nets.

He set and retrieved his ring net many times, but, after an hour, I didn't see him catch any fish.

He finally gave up and left.

I walked back down the sea shore to the fishing boat basin.  The light was beautiful.

The fishing boat basin was man-made.  You can see the big hotels and condos of Pattaya in the background. Jomtien is about 20 kilometers east of Pattaya.

The sun was bright and clear, the colors vivid.

There was so much material for photography . . . so many evocative images.

Many curious details of the fisherman's life.

Dropping anchor.  Many small boats came in during the morning's high tide.

Wonderful colors and shapes . . . .

. . . . that could be photographed from several angles.  I was overwhelmed with trying to figure out all the possible compositions!

In the end, I just sat and watched this old fisherman make and repair nets.

I woke up at 5:00am to go and meet the wiring  guy, George, and then to tow my race car the 200km to  Pattaya before traffic snarled the streets of Bangkok.  George was almost done when I arrived . . . he finished in an hour and I headed down to Pattaya. It was a good day of planning all the final details of the race car . . . "how it should be done," and "the right way to do it" conversations went on all day.  The drive back was beautiful in the setting sun. I stopped at one of the roadside markets and bought a bag of freshly baked cashews. Nice.  Go to my Racing Projects Blog for more on the day's mechanical progress.

A nice place to find the perfect snack for a long drive!

Max Snacks! I opted for a few grams of the cashews from a giant, 100 pound sack. What counts as a snack varies widely across this big wonderful planet of ours.

I woke up at 5:00 this Sunday morning and trailered my race car the 150 miles across Thailand to the race shop that will be installing a new supercharged race 1UZ V-8 engine.  It will be about eight (8) weeks before I will see the race track again . . . but when I do . . .  it is going to be really fun with a blown and injected HEMI! You can check the progress at my Racing Projects Blog link.

6:30am: Getting ready for the long trip down the road. Owning a race car in Thailand has been a lot of fun . . .  and very interesting.