About the club

It's very informal. There is no president, secretary, treasurer, no membership fees. I'm the founder, but I firmly believe in the Wikipedia principle. Members can publish their pictures, stories, and edit.

Gabriel Alwis is an old friend who was a jack-of-all-trades at Studio Times, Colombo. We used to print black and white together in his home darkroom. He has given me a lot of old camera accessories and photo gear which I treasure. Now retired, he is undergoing kidney dialysis. As he's still very keen about photography, I want to take him around and shoot pictures with him.

That's how I got the idea for this club. We both use retro equipment. I want to teach my children how to use old cameras and manual focus lenses. This will be a specialist skill in future, like driving very old cars with sliding mesh gear boxes. I've talked to a couple of other friends who were keen amateur photographers at one time, and hope they too, will join. My friend Mayadunne from Kandy is one and he's very interested.

All of us have to do this amongst various problems, including finding the time and money, in a country with raging inflation for the past five years and little public interest in this kind of thing. We have no axes to grind and none of us are famous photographers. Who cares? I'm already enjoying myself to the hilt, and look forward to our first outing to the Colombo zoo this Friday!

Night scenes during Buddhist Vesak festival

Taken during May 2011 Vesak festival. I hadn't done any serious photography (serious = roll film + hard work) for at least two years, and wanted to check my skills as well as quality of old film in the fridge. Taken with Fujuicolour Superia 1600 ASA negative film out of date by four years and 10 months, without colour correction filters. Prints done at commercial lab without any colour cast correction.


Camera Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 SLR with MIR 20mm lens at F 3.5 and F4 shutter speeds from 1/8 to 1/30th

Street scene, rainy day, Colombo

One of my favourite photos. It was taken with a cheap, old zoom, which added to the picture's rain-created fuzziness. In the background, you can see the front of the Borella municipal supermarket building.

Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SP1000, nondescript 35-200 zoom lens, Fuji neopan 100, F 3.5 at 1/60

 Tamil Fisherman on the Pasikudah beach, eastern Sri Lanka. This was taken in 1998, with the civil war raging on, and the beach was frequented by both the army and Tamil rebels even though there was an army camp less than one km away.
Canon FTb, FD 28mm, Fujicolour 100 ASA

Shipwreck, Kinross

One of my oldest surviving photos. Only part of this wrecked ship can be seen now due to massive sea erosion along the coastline opposite Kinross Club, Wellawatte. The year was probably 1985, and the dark smudge on top is a burn mark made while printing.

Camera has to be a Canon, can't remember other details.

Red Fort, New Delhi, 2000 AD
Canon FTb, FD 28mm, Fuji neopan 100

My wife Dharshani, taken by me six years ago (Sorry, the photo needs to be cleaned!)
Canon FTb, FD28mm, Fuji neopan 100