Hello there, this blog is being revived again, and this time it will keep ticking. As you would have seen from my last post back in 2018, a lot has happened in my life, a lot of water has flowed under the under the bridge since then. But from now on, the blog will be active!

With a few differences, though. Junk is no longer the main theme. I don't collect any more. Covid 19 made me sell what I could. That's good, I feel saner. My interest in old technology is now academic -- enjoy without collecting!

This blog is now mainly about photography. Many of my older posts were about photography equipment. I'm going to add my photos, old as well as what I'm doing now. Junk Lover is a funny name for a photography blog, I know, but let's keep it at that for the time being.

Here's the link:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/4370823715382961356

I'm selecting photographs right now for the MyIsland photography contest organised by the Atra magazine and the French embassy in Colombo. I'm not really competitive (this is the second contest I've entered in my whole life) but I'm doing it because as we get older, we tend to get forgotten. Even if I don't win a place in MyIsland, the effort of sorting out 20 to 30 photos from my selection will re-energise me!

I'll post those photos once the results are announced in mid-July (whether I score or not)!

 This blog isn't all about retro photography. I'm doing a lot of digital work now. This photo of a French photographer using this Olympus film camera was taken with my Nikon digital camera. Now I've switched to Canon, working with a 5D Mark III and 600D. More about that, soon!

Hello there I'm reviving this blog after a break of seven years! Where was I? Not up in the clouds, not in jail, but right here at home, working, working, working. So what happened to the blog?

More like, what happened to me? I'm older, maybe wiser, and still working! But no longer collecting. No more room, and at a crossroads in my life. My living room is my literally that. I sleep there, eat there, along with four dogs and two cats, and (almost) my entire collection is there. What's left in boxes in the garage is rotting at a rate. I'm philosophical about it. No longer collecting stamps. My interests have shifted. I'm trying hard to sell all but one of the five novels I've written (the first one's got to be re-written). It shocks me now that I've been an unpublished author for 25 years! Got plenty of writing ideas but no more novels till I get something published.

Then again, I thought my passion for photography was gone, but it's there. I'm into video now, filming daily life scenes with the Panasonic camcorder which my elder daughter Hiruni gave me as a present when she returned from a scholarship in Australia. I'm thinking of doing a video editing course soon.

Main interest  now is music. I started by studying violin 9 years or so ago. About two years ago, I got serious about guitar, and last year I discovered that I have a singing voice and song writing ability. Not bad for someone who's just turned sixty. I'm serious now about being a singer-song writer (You Tube based). Since I'll need to make music videos for my songs, it isn't a bad idea to learn video editing. I'll have to make my own music videos.

So all this, plus cooking for myself and all these animals, keeps me busy. Plus trying to keep tons of dust away from my crowded living room. Not much time for blogging, but I'm going to keep doing it now. Main thing will be a writing and photography blog as this Junk Lover template looks confusing with too many things in it.

If things go according to plan, there will be a music blog as well.

Bye for now.

Automobiles

This section of my virtual library and archive will display what I have collected on automobiles -- mainly catalogues, owner's manuals, magazine articles and newspaper cuttings, plus my own photographs.  For the books, please check my other blog www.book lover@blogspot.com. I' sorry but I just don't have the resources to scan entire books, so here are a few pages from this (1960s?) Austin LD van driver's handbook to begin with. These workhorses were everywhere in Sri Lanka well into the 1980s. The Postal Department used them as delivery vans in the 1970s. Privately owned examples can still be found occasionally -- there's one parked half a km from my work place at Hunupitiya Cross Roads every day, looking forlornly for short haul hires. Find below the cover and a few inside pages.

Old photographs

Old photographs are valuable historical documents and what I have published here are photos collected by me over the years. The name of the photographer and other details are given if  known. This photo was given to me by Dr. Navamani Selvarajah of Jaffna. It shows the cast of a drama produced by the registrar of the Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai in the late 1960s.

This very old photograph shows a waterfall at Kuttalam, India. It was taken on 14/01/1953. It was given to me by Dr. Selvarajah. She says" "My late sister studied economics in India."

The photo carries the name Thawamanie S. on the back, so the photograph was presumably taken by Dr. Selvarajah's sister.

This photograph shows two actors posing for a publicity shot for Bertolt Brecht's play Puntila, which was produced in Sri Lanka by Finnish director Helena Lehtimaki in the mid-1980s. Seated behind the steering is Mahendra Perera, who is now a top film and stage actor. Standing next to him is the late Nihal Silva, who played Puntila (he was killed a few years later while driving past a military checkpoint).

The car belonged to Mr. Jayasuriya, a collector. Puntila was staged at the Lionel Wendt theatre. The owner drove this car on the stage via an improvised wooden ramp through a side entrance.

 The photo was taken with a Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera by photographer Edmund Gunasekara.

Old cameras and photographic equipment

I never owned a Nikon, when owning one seemed to be every photographer's dream. A Nikon was a status symbol back then (I apologise for the rough picture. This and all that will be featured today were taken by my elder daughter, who is facing an exam. Neither she nor I have the time these days for more careful set ups).
This 70s Nikon full manual camera is as solid as they come. It was gifted to me by Donald Gaminithilake, a keen amateur photographer. Thanks a lot, Donald! Both body and lens are in mint condition, in much better shape than any camera used by me, and those spots on the lens are reflections from the cracked cement.

This is a rare find for me (gifted by Donald. Thank you again!) for magnesium flash bulbs were gone out of use by the time I took to photography in the 1980s. This is an unused set and just looking at them takes me back to my childhood days, when I used to collect spent flash bulbs at weddings. Pity I didn't keep any of those.

This is another find (again thanks to Donald, a million thanks!) the folding type of flashgun which fired those magnesium bulbs. After use, the 'umbrella' can be folded back manually very neatly so that the gun will fit into a small vinyl carrying case.

The Yashica 635 twin lens reflex, an old workhorse camera which took 6 X 7 cm pictures (12 shots per roll). They used to say those who couldn't afford Rolleis bought Yashicas, which is really unfair because this is a very good camera. By the time I got into photography, twin lens reflexes were out except as studio portrait cameras, in which role they used cut film backs. I loved the look of them and bought the first I could find. The lens was still OK then for black and white, though not for colour. The camera still works fine and listening to the precision shutter is a pleasure. You can take pictures from ground level with it and also take them while holding it upside down, high above your head (in crowd situations).
Actually, I feel my daughter took a splendid portrait of this Yashica even though this is a hastily set up shot.

A necessary tool of many photographers a generation ago, though I don't know of any who still use one in Sri Lanka except myself. This isn't the one I use, this is an antique Weston I bought from Mr. Wijetunge, a noted photographer in the 1960s and 70s.

Tsunami pictures

I took this picture of the south-bound 'tsunami train' a week after the catastrophe. The train is back in service now (though at least one carriage is still in the sea) and there was talk of creating a museum at the disaster site. But this being Sri Lanka, it never happened. Most people have no time for yesterday's disasters, they live in fear of what tomorrow might bring...and the 'authorities' are absolutely callous in this regard.

Motorcycle touring/off road riding

I'd been riding motorbikes for twenty years before I discovered that what I'd been doing all my life is called motorcycle touring. This can happen when you have to teach yourself most things. I got into trail bikes and off road riding rather late in my biking life, about seven years ago. Nothing breathtaking, no daring jumps and leaps, just loved riding the bike into places like this rubber plantation. Enjoyed every minute of it. Had to stop this activity two years back due to finances (inflation and petrol sold by what we euphemistically call the government at black market prices).
In the meantime, hanging on to my two old trail bikes because you don't want to give up. You want to hang in there till better times...hope they come along before I get too old.
This old model Yamaha XT250 is a lovely bike but I exchanged it for an equally old Serow, which is a much better machine for off road riding.