Vol 4 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Chapter 2: Ercho Village

“I slept so well” Said Jenny

“Yes I slept very

“I woke up soot so lonely that I ate more snacks Alone” Said Natalia

“I’, Lia” Said Larry

“I see that expensive seats are very good for the back” Said Nick

“It was comfortable” Said Seron

The lie

It was technically evening, but the days were long in the summer and the sun was still up

Ercho Village had a population of about 30,000 It was large for a village, but not large enough to be a city

About 90 percent of its vast lands were flat pastures and fields There was a se, where the village hall was

Winding country roads lined with trees twisted across the village Naturally, there were no street lamps

The villa district followed the country roads Each property ood use of the vast lands, with hundreds of —sometimes the houses were so far they could not see their next-door neighbors

Jenny’s relatives’ villa was a luxury mansion in that area

The building was 30 meters wide and three stories tall With its white walls and orange roofs it exuded cheer

Next to the building was a wooden garage The door was shut

Suarden, and birds were chirping in the distance

The liates and soon stopped at the door

The newspaper club members spilled out of the limousine from both sides It was not particularly warm, but not as windy as the Capital District They were enveloped by a cool, refreshi+ng air

“Whoa, not bad” Natalia said That hen she noticed the reeted them

The man and the woman were both in their fifties, and both dressed in checkered shi+rts of different colors and cargo pants Both were plump and looked very kind

“Welco trip” The wolad to see you’re well Your new hairstyle suits you”

“Thank you, Auntie” Jenny replied “Thanks for having us over”

With an uncharacteristically bright smile, Jenny introduced the couple to the newspaper club

“This is Mr and Mrs Ruf They’ve been a big help to us for years We’re practically family”

Then she introduced the newspaper club and the bodyguards to the couple The students gave courteous greetings, and the bodyguards flashed their IDs

“Thank you for coe Would you care for some tea to start off the trip? We’ll take you to your rooms afterwards” Mrs Ruf offered

Seron and the others were led into a large sitting rooe up to their rooms first

Marveling at the beautiful flowers outside the , the newspaper club e

Mrs Ruf gave them a brief introduction to the villa

They were free to go anywhere within the blue fences, which marked the villa property The villa kept two horses in the back which they could ride for long distances There were a dozen bicycles on hand thanks to the recent cycling boom There were two motorcycles on hand as well, for anyone with a license

“Me! I’ve got one! Up to 300cc,his hand In Roxche, new ine displacement limit

After tea, the students were led to their roo for one person

There was a double bed with a canopy and lace curtains, luxurious sofas, a rose-colored vanity, a dresser, and a fluffy carpet

The walls were painted a cals by the same artist

“Ah, I recognize this artist It—”

“Never mind, Nick I’m not sure I want to kno much it costs”

Each room had its own bathroom with a porcelain bathtub Beyond the balcony they had a view of the flowers in the garden and the gentle plains in the distance

The boys’ rooirls’ rooms on the third Kurtz and Litner had their own rooms on the first floor

“Don’t you dare sneak up here at night, Larry” Natalia teased

“Huh? Why would I do that?” Larry asked obliviously

The sky was agloith dusk, and everyone had gotten rested in their own rooms

“Seron! Dinner!”

“Be right there”

Larry and the others aiting outside The newspaper club headed to the large dining room on the first floor

There was an unused fireplace in the dining roo 20-seater table before it The newspaper club sat at one end, with the boys on one side and the girls on the other just like in the club office

Bread, vegetables, juice, tea, and the appetizer were already set on the table And—

“Our ht will be chicken steamed in white wine served with anchovy sauce”

Mrs Ruf rolled in the main course on a cart

On the plate were sautéd drumsticks steamed in white wine

Then came the sauce—a mixture of anchovy and herbs stir-fried in olive oil The sauce was served in a small pot and placed atop a burner to keep it warm

“It s “In truth, I love anchovy very h my rest of the family members hate anchovy”

“Looks good Can we have seconds?” Asked Natalia

“You haven’t even started, Lia I want seconds too, though” Larry added

“The butter looks delicious as well And very fresh” Nick commented

“It was probably made today And hipped cream too—the simplest and best” Replied Seron

“Good eye, Seron I bet Uncle orking hard on this today”

They started eating

They finished eating

“I’onna put you through training?”

Seron replied “Let’s save it for to aside, the butter was incredible Frozen food just can’t compete”

“It was all delicious” Said Nick “I particularly enjoyed the asparagus”

“That was soest this” Said Larry

“Looking forward to the rest of the caht snacks?” Natalia asked

“Thank you for the

The sun set cohttime

“Tonight, I’ll teach you to use a caather back here!” Jenny cried in the sitting room

“Why the uniforms?” Asked Larry

“Because it’s a club activity” Jenny replied

Once the athered in identical clothes (save for the names embroidered onto them), Jenny laid out a cloth over the thick table Then she took out a camera from her trunk and placed it on the cloth

“We’re starting with the camera! I expect everyone to have the instructions raphy outing!”

“That’s quite the collection you’ve brought with you”

Just as Nick said, there were nearly ten cameras on the table

They were rangefinder cameras that used standard 35mm fille to telephoto

Then there were over a hundred rolls of unused black-and-white filht intensity

Although cameras had become more popularized, a middle-class family would be lucky to have one at home And here lay ten of them on the table before their eyes

“Man… these probably add up to a small fortune” Larry speculated

“Listen up! News photography is not art! We don’t need any long artist state explanations! Our priority is to take clear, focused pictures anyone can understand instantly!”

Jenny Jones’s Photography Class was in session

First, they learned to use the photometer

An experienced photographer could tell how ht there was on a sunny day or a cloudy day, but that was not possible for a newbie

It was annoying, but they had always to check the exposure with the photometers and refer to the h to fit in the pal them around their necks in case they dropped it And when they were not using the photometers, they had to keep them inside a leather case to prevent the solar batteries fro

“It is elegant and cute” Meg co the brown leather cases

Then Jenny taught theht to let into the camera

They needed to know three things in order to accurately set the exposure The sensitivity of the fil, and the shutter speed

“You’re going too fast, chief Wait up for us” Natalia complained Jenny nodded

“I’ll go in order”

The sensitivity of the film was exactly what it sounded like It was how sensitively the filht

The more sensitive the film, the faster the shutter speed had to be But that had the downside of rainy It was the opposite with less sensitive filhout the duration of the roll

In this case, Jenny had only brought fil of 125 So there was no need to worry about the sensitivity this time However, they had to re on their photometers to 125

“What about the cost of the film and the development?” Asked Seron

“Club expenses” Jenny replied

Then she taught theht that cah the lens

There was an aperture inside the camera, which could be widened or narrowed The position of the aperture was measured by f-stops The ht was let in However, there was a certain point at which no ht could be allowed inside

Another variable to note was that the more the aperture idened, the less they could focus on Because this technique raphing people or flowers to put theht

On the other hand, when the aperture was narrowed they could focus on a wider range—for example, they could take a photo of the villa with the landscape behind it all in full focus

“Technically you can only focus on one distance, but when you narrow the aperture you can see it because everything widens It’s called depth of field”

“What’s that now? You lost me, chief” Natalia furrowed her brow Seron stepped in

“Nat, take off your glasses”

“H now”

“What happens when you squint? Or try holding your thuer in a circle in front of your eye”

“Oh, I do that all the time I can see a bit better that way”

“And if you do that, sometiht?”

“Yeah”

“That’s what happens when you increase the depth of field”

“Aha! Gotcha I get it now” Natalia nodded “In other words, I was born to be a photographer”

“I can’t even tell if that was a joke” Larry remarked

Jenny continued

A deep depth of field could be convenient, but the ht hit the film And that meant they needed a slower shutter speed to match

The shutter speed was the aht was allowed to hit the film

With a high shutter speed, even a h it was still With a low shutter speed, they could take photos of dimmer subjects or with a narrower aperture, but they would have to set the caraph would turn out completely blurred

In terms of shutter speed, there was a certain threshold they could not cross as long as they were shooting without a tripod So they had to keep the aperture wide enough with that in mind

“This camera has six shutter speed options 1/500 of a second, 1/250 of a second, 1/100 of a second, 1/50 of a second, and 1/25 of a second And then there’s the bulb setting”

“And what ht that be?” Asked Nick

“It er’s on the shutter button”

“I see So it’s only used in conjunction with a tripod”

“Yeah I gave you all handhelds, so just stick to 1/50 and you’ll be fine If you think you’ll need a lower speed, widen the aperture I’ll teach you to use the strobe later”

Once they had a set exposure, it was ti in the world couldn’t help if the ie was out of focus

“Hey! I take offense to that, Larry Hepburn!” Natalia hissed, pushi+ng up her glasses

“I haven’t said ‘cohted’ or ‘blind without ‘em’ yet, Lia” Larry replied

“What’s that, shortie? C’entlemen”

“I’ll pass Have fun stargazing alone, Lia It’s real romantic out there”

“Save the duel to the death for later, you two Let’s get back to the lesson”

With a rangefinder cah the viewfinder If the object at the center of the viewfinder seee was out of focus They had to turn the ring until the ie consolidated

Finally, Jenny explained about composition

For exa a person if his face was not in the shot And there was no point to a landscape if the ie was tilted

They had to adjust the angle or switch out lenses depending on what and how they wanted to photograph

Jenny then added that they had to be careful with the cameras, as they were very delicate pieces of equip the cameras on straps around their necks at all tirossed that they end up walking backwards with an eye on the viewfinder

“Speaking froed that she had done such a thing several times

Seron quickly and efficiently took down an outline of the lesson Then he copied out his notes for the others

It was getting late The world outside was pitch-black, as the h everyone was in their gym uniforms

“I see I barely understand to use it now At the saave me a camera for me I will carry around Seron’s memo with me always”

Everyone, including the technologically-challenged Meg, had grasped the basics of photography

“I’ll teach you the rest to like a test run to really learn all this stuff Let’s shoot lots” Jenny finished, sweat on her brow from her fervent lecture

“You didn’t teach us to load and unload the film” Seron pointed out

“…Tomorrow! Dismissed!”

The first day of the camp came to an end

The newspaper club members slowly cli

“Long day, huh Gonna get soht, I bet”

“It is good that I can sleep in a very princess-like bed tonight” Said Meg

“I get the distinct feeling that you ht find such beds at Seron’s home, no?” Nick wondered

Seron replied, “Leena—my sister—used to have one, but she tried to climb it and it broke So not anymore”

“What do you guys say to a 10-kilometer run at the crack of dawn?” Asked Jenny

“What, are we the uys are up for it”

“No” “Me neither, please…”

Natalia and Meg were quick to object

“Too bad” Jenny sighed “Well, just be up before breakfast to up too early, either”

The boys stepped back from the staircase

“Well then, have a good night” Meg waved as she went up to the third floor

Seron watched her, on and on until she was finally out of sight

Larry was distinctly reht out of a film, but he waited for Seron without a word As did Nick

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Larry turned to the empty hallway

“What ht be the matter, Larry?” Nick asked, surprised

“H break just now Was it just ht?”

Larry shrugged

Then he gave Seron a tap on the shoulder, snapping him out of his daze

“Let’s go, buddy There’s always tomorrow”

“Huh?”

Just a single step before reaching the third floor, Natalia froze

“What’s wrong?” “Is everything all right?”

Jenny and Meg asked from behind

“I heard a toaster oven shatter just now Wonder what that’s all about” Natalia said “Well, none ofhappens” She concluded, resu her walk

The 2nd day of the eighth month

It wason the second day of the camp

Seron opened his eyes unbidden early in theHe woke up at the same time as the previous day, an hour before the sleeper train reached the Capital District

Thebetween the curtains It was a clear day

Seron was in a T-shi+rt and a pair of shorts He climbed out of bed and scratched his messy hair as he headed to the bathrooht, so he si into long pants and a button-down shi+rt

There was still time before breakfast Seron wondered what he should do

“Right The camera”

He thought to review Jenny’s lesson, but he realized that the ca room

With nothing else to do, Seron drew the curtains, opened the glass door, and stepped out onto the balcony

The sun was still low near the horizon, but shi+ning brightly The sky was still a dark blue There was almost no wind

Cradled in the pleasantly cool air and the scent of grass, Seron walked forward He placed his hands on the railing