The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

Samut Songkran is about an hour's drive from my house.  It is the home of the famous Floating Market - a tourist favorite.  There are actually three major floating markets in the Samut Songkran region.  There were literally thousands of people there . . . but I only saw three real foreign tourists all day. Apparently the recent troubles in Thailand have scared the tourists away.  That is a shame.  The Floating Market is a really beautiful and fantastically interesting place to spend the afternoon

The Floating Market is actually a real functional local market built along both sides of an estuarial canal with sales being made both from the old wooden shops that line the canal, and directly from the boats that ply the canal with goods from the farms and sea.

The Floatng Market, though popular with tourists, is a living market.

Life in Thailand as it has been for thousands of years.

A traditional klong (canal) boat and boatman in traditional clothing.

The town of Samut Songkran is estuarial, so seafood finds its way easily to the grills of the boat vendors.

Timeless river trading -- the easiest way to move goods from source to market.

The shops that line the canal are old.  Many are kept in beautiful Old Thai style. This one is actually a "Home Stay" hotel.

Many beautiful touches of beauty adorned the homes.

A young Thai Tom Sawyer.

Everything from gnarly fruit . . . . . .

. . . to steamed fish . . .

. . . to grilled squid . . .

. . . to colored cotton candy in plastic cups was for sale at the Samut Songkran Floating Market.

I love these small upcountry Thai market towns like Lopburi.

A nice park to pic-nic while giving your childern a peek into the afterlife.

With the recent political problems have come some nice agitprop street art.

Images of women.

They love their "Jazz King" in Thailand.

Lopburi is the home of the Continuous Potato Chip [singular].

Spent the week-end in Lopburi, Thailand -- an easy 90 minute drive north of Bangkok.  Very pleasant . . . and interesting!

Parts of Lopburi, around the Monkey Temple, are completely overrun with monkeys. A photographers' paradise!

Casual city dwelling monkeys.

Monkeys here . . . . .

. . . monkeys there . . . .

. . . monkeys everywhere!

And I do mean EVERYWHERE!

A wonderful old Buddha near the Lopburi Monkey Temple site.

Centuries of worshipers' gold leaf has nearly obscured the Buddha statue's detail. This Buddha statue is in a long room with a very bright red ceiling along with tall windows down each side, giving it this interesting redish glow.

New gold leaf added every day to all the Buddha images in the Wat (Buddhist Temple).

I bought a bracelet to wear for the next month -- to remember the day and the spirit of the Monkey Temple.

. . . .  and one for the private home.

It was fun to walk around Japan in mid-April with a camera in my hand. The weather was alternately wet and dreary and then bright and cheery.  We went on several day trips out of Fukuoka into the mountains.  We never passed up an opportunity to visit a flower garden.  It was that time of year. Flowers were blooming. It was early Spring.  Cool Spring is such a novelty to somebody like me who lives in the damp, hot tropical city of Bangkok.

In the mists of a Japanese Spring . . . and Time,

The steady mist settled upon the pink petals,

White and yellow flowers defying the wet with their unyielding cheer,

An umbrella for a mosquito.

A welcoming inn on a damp day.

Saki house recommendations.

What to take home?

To travel, to look about, to see someone in an instant.  A life passes at 70kph before a shutter.  Click.

Dried red puffs adorn a shop wall.

Small town charm in Japan.

Small, tasty, expensive specialty cakes can be found all over Japan.  Yum-yum!

The Japanese love of nature is brought into the life of towns and cities in wonderful ways.

Japan is a very beautiful country - especially in April! Many photos to follow . . . . when I have time.

Wonderful flower farm near Mt. Aso.  The tulips were ready to burst.

Out on the island flower garden . . . more natural beauty.

As if yellow had never been seen before!

A tiny, fleeting world.

Serene early Japanese Spring.

Soup cooked in paper over a live flame.

Nature.

Japanese aesthetics; always a scene.

Kenji, go arrange the peppers.  Ok, I will.

Secret rendezvous.