As the parade moved past me, I moved towards the soon-to-be novices. Family members and friends were carrying them on decorated platforms. This child is emerging from the Monastery’s Dragon Gate. The young child, wearing a crown upon his head, is dwarfed by enormous dragon that looms behind him.

The ceremony itself begins with prayers. The young boys, soon to become Buddhist monks, are given the only garment they will soon be wearing – a maroon robe. The heads of the celebrants have been shaved. I stress the position of their hands as they grasp the packages containing their robes.

The new monks have been given their alms bowls. They have walked with them throughout the hall, collecting alms (mostly US Dollars) from the visitors attending the ceremony. In this image, they stand solemnly with bowls in hand. However the somewhat sleepy child at right uses the moment to incongruously rub his eye.

Although I had previously visited Thailand in 1988, 1991, 2001, and 2002, my 2016 visit to Phuket included two firsts for me. It was the first time I had ever visited this southern resort city. It was also my very first visit to a Thailand without a reigning monarch. The country’s beloved King Bhumibol had died only seven weeks before this, my final visit, to Thailand, took place. His heir apparent, the Crown Prince, had yet to take the throne. The 88 year-old King had ruled Siam, (long since renamed Thailand) from 1946 to 2016, making him the world’s longest reigning monarch. (His grandfather was immortalized in the Broadway musical and film, “The King and I.”) The streets of Phuket were hung with black crepe, and memorial displays, such as this one in a large jewelry store, were plentiful. I used spot metering to make this picture, exposing on the white mums. The resulting image makes the background go black, suspending in space the golden framed painting of the king in his younger days, along with three exquisitely crafted memorial urns. I make the entire display float in darkness, a metaphor for grief and loss.

The final six images on this gallery explore the appeal one of the most unique places on earth, Phang Nga Bay National Park. I begin this sequence with an abstracted “theme” image, featuring the colorfully decorated bow of a Thai boat. It is lashed to a dock, and features shadows cast upon the shimmering milky-green waters of Phang Nga Bay. The boat suggests a journey, while the shadowy dock seems to grasp its bow with a fraying rope.

There are more than 80 limestone islands in this national park. This one, known as Koh Panyee, is home to a village resting on small pilings. Its inhabitants are Muslim fishermen who originally migrated here from Indonesia. Cut off from the mainland, their culture has maintained its character for over 100 years. In this image, I feature a local mosque that incongruously looms over the workaday world below it. The traditional golden domes contrast to the drying clothes arrayed below them as well as to the limestone cliffs that soar behind them.