The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

My friend John and I decided to go out photo rambling in Bangkok and end up at the Saxophone Pub, our favorite music venue.  I took a look at GoogleMaps to see what was in walking and saw the Phaya Thai Palace and Throne Room. What are those?  Only a 10 minute walk.  Let's go see.

It was a beautiful, not too oppressively hot, late afternoon at Victory Monument when we arrived.

We walked along a broad busy avenue, lined with street vendors of all kinds.

When I say 'all kinds of street vendors' I mean all kinds.

We arrived at the Throne Hall and were surprised by a sweet, turn-of-the-last-century carpentry treasure of a building: The Throne Hall.

A closer view yielded a strange light from within the Throne Hall!

It seems we had arrived only hours before what looked like a fashion show was to begin.  There was furious activity by a crew to get the show ready for that evening . . . testing the lights and count.

Such a beautiful space.

The chairs were all lined up ready for the evening's affair . . . whatever it was going to be.

There was a beautiful old cafe, The Cafe de Norasingha, built in 1912 and has remained exactly as it was then.  A bit of old Viena right in Bangkok.

Located behind the Throne Hall and cafe was the old Phaya Thai Palace, the 'country' home of the Thai King, Rama VI.

The old palace has had several lives since Rama VI, including military barracks, and a hospital, although we could not tell if it was still a hospital or not as there was no sign of life about.

We wandered around the empty interior of the old palace and were amazed by the light, color, and shadow.

Classical European statuary could be found throughout the palace and gardens, a popular decoration at the time.

Over 100 years old and still beautiful.

There were several wonderful stairwells.

There was a beautiful cottage on a klong (canal) in the rear of the palace.

While out back photographing this beautiful cottage, I saw something move near my feet . . . .

Oh My! A four foot Asian water lizard!

The sun goes down fast in the tropics, and the moods inside the old Rama VI Palace changed too.

I have to say it got a little spooky in there . . . . with nobody around.

As it grew darker outside, the light through the windows cast wonderful light into the interior.

The old marble floors glowed with colorful reflections in the gloom.

A few lights were turned on in the passageways between the building making for wonderful geometric photos.

Amber lighting on the old royal doors . . .

We were getting thirsty and hungry, so we left the Palace and Throne hall in the last of the blue light.

View of the Throne Hall (foreground) and Phaya Thai Palace (behind) at night.

We walked back along Ratchawithi Road toward Saxophone Pub, enjoying the photographic opportunities offered by the night food hawkers.

A tourist or perhaps a local expat buying hot corn from a street vendor.

Arriving at the Saxophone Jazz and Blues Pub, Victory Monument, Bangkok, Thailand.

A recent trip to Thailand brought us back to our old stomping grounds of Pakkret . . . for a wonderful sunset.

An amazing colorful sunset . . .

A jet plan streaked the closing sunset.

The ubiquitous Buddhist spirit house is seen everywhere in Thailand.  I spotted this one while walking along a sandy road near the beach just north of Hua Hin in January of 2016.

Spirit houses are tended . . . by someone or many someones.  This particular spirit house was in a vacant field, not too far from several beach houses.

On certain Buddha days, people will adorn a spirit house with flower (or plastic flower) garlands.  The real flower garlands dry up and become, to my eye, even more beautiful.

The untended of the tending garlands . . . . magnificent!

Spirit houses are also places for performing Buddhist spiritual practices and rituals.

Various votive items are placed in these spiritual structures.  Some as help or accouterments of need to the inhabitors of the spirit house, and some as Buddhist veneration.

The color and textures of these dried votive garlands are captivating to me.

Even the plastic garlands, when covered with the age of layers of dust, are beautiful in time.

Time, weather, and craft.

I walked on down the sandy road in the heat.  I was happy that I had stopped to really see what was within this spirit house.

I was walking down a dirt road in Hua Hin, Thailand on New Years' Day 2016 and saw some nice light on this palm trunk.

The colors and patterns, and contrast was superb.

Wonderful pattern and color.

On my recent vacation back home in Thailand I took a walk along the Gulf of Thailand shore to take some seascape shots.

I took a number of photos of the low surf crashing against a retaining wall.  As I zoomed my camera view screen to see if it was a clear shot, I noticed something interesting . . . .

. . . there were astounding patterns and forms in the splashes.

Each wave splash created an ethereal and aesthetic world that passed with the gravity it had defied.

These were not large phenomena, maybe only a foot or two high.

But I was mesmurized by their fleeting beauty.

Patterns in patterns, shapes within shapes.

Fascinating.

Some of the captures were suitable for artistic post-processing, including a black and white study:

[All photos captured with a Fuji X-Ti and 56mm f1.2 lens]