The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

Since my house wasn't flooded (yet), I decided to go down to the Chao Phraya River to take a look around the town of Pakkret and take some photos.

This is the sand bag barricade that is holding the river back from flooding MY HOUSE! I, and other old fat people, wandered to the river's edge, took a look, and turned away.

What I saw was not all that bad: yes, some shop houses right on the river had become swamped, but a huge barricade of sand bags held back the mighty river.  People walked about on these makeshift gang planks.

Life goes on, as they say.  Send the motorcycle taxi out to get lunch for you . . . . as usual.

The big fresh food market was still open, but showed signs of having been under water recently.

People gotta eat: feeding the flooded.

There were some very large sand bag embankments.  You could see that the water had been much higher.

There was still a fight with the river going on.

The sand bags did not keep all the water out, so there were many pumps going to keep the market dry.

The elderly seemed to be adapting . . .

. . . the children too.

The flood did not mean the same thing to everyone.

This well protected man (see the Buddha amulets around his neck!) liked to sit in the middle of my photos. Well, why not, he was very photogenic.

Speaking of photogenic, I hope this young boatman moonlights as a model.

He's got the look!

On the other side of the sand bags was the river.  Boats came and went ferrying people to their flooded homes.

A flooded spirit house and side street.

The little back alleys of the old wooden dock district of Pakkret was also flooded. Beauty in tragedy.

A sand bag portrait, strangely photogenic.

Although the floors are flooded, all the shops are still open . . . but things are not exactly flying off the shelves . . . er, I mean the shelves are not flying off the shelves . . . er, I mean the shelves are not flying off the wall.  You know what I mean.

Old Pakkret follows the river bank in a maze of small alleyways.  Up ahead on the right, the tall sand bank embankments are holding back the water.  The river level is only a few inches below the top of these bags.

The discolored plastic sky lights let in an eerie mood as volunteers continued to shore up the defences against the rising river.

Water sat still in the old riverfront wooden shop houses.

Amazing images around every corner.  Buddhas reflected in the greenbrown waters of the flooded shop.

Different shop, different Buddha, different reflection.

The dark, flooded alleys held much beauty.  I am not sure who will be buying this hat today -- perhaps someone who lost theirs in the flood.

Bright blue nets in the flooded gloom.

Beautiful light.  You could make your own netting.

People moved around in their once familiar neighborhood silently, except for the sloshing of their feet.

It was quite difficult to navigate the maze of sand bags, planks, and barricades.

The look of concern was on the faces of may residents in the Pakkret old town.

Of course some merchants are less upset than others.  Being a paddle salesman is a good thing during a flood, although those 99 baht ones on the bottom may be hard to sell even during a flood.

Potions and elixirs seemed to be moving well enough, despite, or because of, the flood.

He may have to discount these Spirit House garlands as they did not keep the flood away.

A rack 'o paddles . . . just what you need when you are up the proverbial creek. There was no line for these.

On the river side of the sand bags there was complete submersion.

I left the flooded old area along the river to walk over toward the big Pakkret food market.

The Happy Hawker, perched upon the sand bags. The people gotta eat.

This part of the northern suburbs of Bangkok still has the feel of the old order world . . .

. . . but mechanized modernity is catching up.

The ubiquitous Thai Tuk-Tuk.  The tuk-tuk driver was very suspicious of me.  So suspicious, I thought there might be a crime in progress nearby.

Just inside the entrance to the big market sat this Buddha amulet repair and refurbishment service.  Now I know where the old man at the flood wall got all of his!

The market had food . . . if you count stuff-on-a-stick and deep fried everything. Gotta love those deep fried weenies. There was a lot of bottled water on sale for those whose homes are swamped.

The clothing and shoes sections were fully stocked, but there were very few shoppers. These are definately post-flood fashion items.

Other than the merchants' children, there weren't any customers.

Many of the small shops that line the big open market space had cemented block walls built to keep out the water . . . and sand bag steps for getting in and out.

Not a customer in sight.

The shops were well stocked.  If you wanted to buy a . . . what the Hell are they selling here?

Heavily discounted Thai sweets were available for the non-diabetic. Noticed the furniture sitting atop cement blocks, upper right.

Some shops were cleaning up after the morning fresh market had closed.

I'm not sure what this shop specializes in, but they were clean.

A perfectly androgynous market laborer posing.

Come Hell, or in this case, high water, the COOKING FAT MUST BE DELIVERED . . . and it was!

If the site of your flower stall is now occupied by sand bags, no problem, use what you have.

I guess people were not feeling lucky. I waited around, but didn't see anybody buy any of these lottery tickets.

I walked through the market toward the river and encountered the sand bag wall that was keeping the river water out. The flood in Pakkret is not too bad, but a million or more Thais have had their homes and businesses inundated by water.  The government now says that most of Bangkok will be flooded for up to six weeks.  It could get bad.

Hua Hin is a Royal beach town about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Bangkok; close enough to drive for a week-end, far enough so it is no too crowded.  It is my favorite town in Thailand  . . .  well, besides Loei.

The Morning:

In addition to being a destination for Bangkok week-enders, it is also a real, bustling market town.

I am a bit of a creature of habit when it comes to my trips to Hua Hin.  My favorite place for breakfast/brunch is the All In Hua Hin, a German restaurant and store.  It is said that perhaps as many as 150 Germans and Scandinavian snow-birds retire to Hua Hin each month.

I don't know what it is about this place, but as soon as I sit down in it, I feel like I am on vacation.

All In Hua Hin is also, in some ways, a small town German grocery.  Cheese, meats, condiments, and other foods from Germany made available to the growing retirement community makes Hua Hin feel like a hybrid Euro-Thai town.  Nice. There are many such establishments in Hua Hin, but this is my favorite.

Warm, baked-just-for-me rolls, paprika sausages, German mustard, and the best god damn yogurt, beet, pickle, and herring salad on earth! My favorite lunch.

The Wet Market:

After my lunch I fitted my new 70-200mm USM II lens and went for a walk to the Hua Hin wet market. Although the wet market is quite large, you sorta-kinda have to know where the entrance is - amid the confusion.

The wet market entrance is on the left, half way down.  This same street is converted into the famous Hua Hin "Night Market.".  The cars are cleared and market stalls are set up.

The market area attracts a lot of local color . . . and local characters.

There are various ways to get yourself and your products to and from the market.

The pick-up truck bus conversion is common in small town Thailand.

The wet market spills out on to the streets nearby . . . into the cart world.

Cart world presents you with very hard decisions even before you enter the wet market.  These scrumptious little buggers are to absolutely to die for!

Once inside the wet market the world changes: the science of product arrangement fully on display.  Lots of dried shrimp, fish, and assorted fish snack here.

One of my lifelong hobbies is the worldwide quest for "What Counts As A Snack." This array of bagged finger food certainly rates a 9.3 on the Harper Scale of Obscure Snackage (HSOS).

Squid (sa-quid in Thaiglish) snack at its best; fresh from the drying racks. Pungent, piquant, pretty tasty.

The amazing new 70-200mm lens is an f2.8, so low light is no problem.  I wore a bright green t-shirt so I would blend right in . . . . a forest, not a market!

It's a good thing to have a long low light telephoto lens in a market so you don't have to get right up in people's faces. A chicken merchant at work.

Hua Hin is a seaside town, so fresh sea food abounds.  This iced squid in the wet market is surprisingly photogenic, don't you think?

Fish of every kind, size, and color is for sale.

The Hua Hin wet market.

A Hua Hin chicken tender, of sorts.  There is a large fresh meat section in the market.  No USDA inspectors to be seen anywhere . . . or refrigeration either.

The proper way to cure pork filet, au naturale. This may be my best meat portrait ever!

A potential Frank Zappa or Captain Beefheart album cover. Meat framing is novel, don't you think?

You don't see this every day, thank Goodness. The meat section of Thai wet markets always have these hanging about in their mock porcine serenity.

A part of the au naturale meat curing is a thick layer of grit and grime. "Waiter, I'll have that pork chop well done, if it's not too much trouble."

There is a small Islamic population in Thailand. The market had this delicious halal hot curry paste for non-pork cookery.

Islamic Thai halal curry paste vendor.

Grind these and press them for their milk, add to the curry paste, add some chicken and veggies and you have a wonderful meal.

There are many sections to this market, including the fruits and vegetables.  Life spent day after day in  the same market stall seems to conjure an indelible patina of longing.

Helping Mom in her market flower stall.

The accouterments of Buddhist practice are everywhere.

Incense bundles.

I can  spend all day in these markets: the light and shadow, color and smells are completely captivating.

The perfect Thai market photo? I love this still life.

My daughter's favorite snack: dried fish strips.

Portraits of stacked dried fish is not for everybody, I know, but I am fascinated by the color, textures, and pattern.

Dried fish with sesame seeds, a variation on the theme. A strong sense of otherworldly actuality is somehow induced in the presence of these wonderful assemblages of light and color.

Nice in soup and the Thai noodle dish, pad thai.

Back out on the street and down an alley to my truck, the view changes.

Right out of the pages of The Saturday Evening Post.

There is something to say for a lack of maintenance: it makes for beautiful aesthetic surfaces to photograph.

Like this.

The Seaside Buddhist Temple:

I decided I wanted to go to see the big Buddha statue on the sea. The beach is developed for tourism, but there aren't too many tourists these days. The only vacationers are the horses!

There were a few ocean bathers . . . with hats and t-shirts on so they wouldn't get dark from exposure to the sun, a major Thai concern.

The Hua Hin Buddha colossus.

There is a large rock head (literally, hua hin in Thai) that juts out into the sea with a colossal Buddha statue and Wat (Thai Buddhist temple) on it.

It was a wonderfully peaceful place.  This monk selling amulets, a nun selling incense, gold leaf, string, and candles were the only other people there.

I bought incense, a candle, and gold leaf to place on the altar; and two strings to tie around my wrist to remember the occasion as a blessing. These old Wat altars are fantastical things, thick with age and the residue of its own devotional history.

Some Buddha images are considered extra-ordinary and seem to command more gold leaf application than others.

Small Buddha statuary is available for purchase to adorn the family altar.

Many Thais wear these encased Buddha amulets, sold at Wats.  There is a huge trade and speculative market in these, seemingly against all the tenets of Buddhism.

For me, the Buddha image is an advertisement, from the past, for what good can be done with the mind, in the present.

Flower actuality.  Thanks Buddha for helping me notice.

The Night Market:

After a wonderful two hour afternoon oil massage I met my wife at her golf course and we headed to the Hua Hin night market.  At dusk every day the same street that accesses the wet market is cleared of cars and the many stalls of a night market are erected.

Hua Hin is not called a market town for nothing.  There is something Medieval about the night market, as if the setting up of this market has been going on for thousands of years.  It's good to see it has lasted into the present, in spite of the cancerous spread of the multinational mall and cheap goods emporiums.

The same street in which I took photographs this morning in front of the wet market entrance, now a beautiful blue dusk.

The night market was strangely empty . . . it was not a three-day week-end and there was a threat of flooding in Bangkok.

As darkness descended, the brightly colored textiles stood out in the night stalls.

The Night Market is made up of walking vendors, stalls, and carts, like this sticky rice and mango vendor has.

My favorite desert, beautifully displayed.

A mother and son sweet roti cart.

Other desert carts specialize in Asian Ice Deserts. "What Counts As Desert" also applies here: beans, corn bean paste, wheat, green gelatinous worms . . . . all very good on ice with coconut milk.  Your choice!

Fancy some dried meat?  Fresh or packaged? 

The Hua Hin night market is a good place to go for a seafood dinner . . . and we have many times.

Looking into a market stall is like looking into a face; complex and telling.  These photos are like a human portrait.

You select your own ingredients for your fried noodles.

A smoothy cart enveloped in the immensity of the universe.

And what would the universe be without tropical fruit?

You can find just about anything at the Hua Hin Night Market.

See anything you like? Wood carvings and bronze castings.  The Hua Hin night market has an endless variety of . . . . .

. . . . beautifully hand-crafted, hand-carved candles in wooden boxes . . . . .

. . . . and mundane things . . . . and . . . .

. . . . and sacred Buddha votive items for the home altar . . . .

. . . . many, many sacred Buddha things. I do not approve of the selling of dismembered Buddha parts (heads, hands, and feet are common) as tourist souvenirs.  If you own a [whole] Buddha statue, you must take care of it; it belongs on an alter and must be tended with respect.

The faces of the stalls fascinate.

These night market stall portraits never cease to fascinate.

* 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.

Canon 5D Mark II and the new Canon 70-200 f2.8 L USM IS II lens bought in Hong Kong at well below world prices.  Look Out World, here I come!

It's always nice to visit Hong Kong.  My wife's sister lives there, so we always get the royal treatment. This is the view from the Hong Kong side looking to the Kowloon side.

My Hong Kong brother-in-law,Johnson Li, and I like to go on little photographic expeditions.  Stanley Peak is always good for some moody shots.

Hong Kong is so developed and redeveloped, so over built, and so modernised that when one sees a vestige of the old days, an infrastructure relic, you are taken aback.

Of course the eating never stops: delicious suckling pig anyone?  Yes, those ARE little red light bulbs in the eye sockets and, yes, they did blink on and off.  A macabre touch, to say the least.

In addition to eating, there is the Hong Kong national pastime, shopping.  The same luxury global brands are for sale in each and every mall . . . a kind of Shopping Hell!

But not everything is crass commercialism.  Some tiny bits of "Old Hong Kong" can be seen here and there . . . like these old fishermen's houses at Stanley Market.

The old Stanley Market, near Repulse Bay, though touristy, is a nice change of pace from the Mega Malls.

Stanley Market is a real, working local markeet in addition to a tourist destination.

Many South Asian tourists find their way to Hong Kong, no doubt a holdover from British colonial days.  The shops reflect the tastes of the visitors.

Beautiful and colorful Sari accouterments . . .

. . . and baubbles . . .

. . . and knock-off bags.

Around the back of Stanley Market one could purchase exact replicas of the famous Chinese terra-cotta warriors . . .

. . . already crated and ready for shipment, at a cost below what you could imagine.  The proprietor said that the shipping would cost more than the warrior. I really wanted one for our garden. However, my nephew J Harper warned me, "Yeah, but I saw in a movie where they can come to life and cause all sorts of mayhem." I am forewarned.

I see these personal chops every time I go to Hong Kong but have yet to buy one.