Chapter 6

“Now that everyone has gathered, it’s time to start our weekly meeting!” Prez said with excitement, and the club members clapped along with her statement. Six members attended the meeting, the same people who showed up last week.

The club had a lot more members. On paper, the club recorded its attendance. Students must attend club meetings, and if they don’t attend, that would affect their score book. The photography club had a lot more members than the one gathered here today, but the other members came in and off. Most members still attended during the first month after a semester began. The month after that, excuses would start to pop up. After that, they started disappearing with no news, occasionally showing their heads.

“You know… I really expected more people with Nadia here,” Prez murmured, her excitement quickly fading. “I prepared something special as well.”

Last week, a lot of members showed up, as they were curious about Nadia. But their curiosity faded away as quickly as it came. After turning the club meet into a meet-and-greet session, they went home, never to be seen again…

Alright, maybe they would pop up once or twice to show their face, but that’s about it. I doubt Nadia alone is strong enough to create new, real members, especially since we saw a similar thing with Carol when she first joined. People came out of curiosity, then a couple of weeks passed, and they all disappeared.

Nadia raised a hand. “What will we be studying today?”

Color returned to the Prez’s eyes as she replied. “Good question! We will be studying shutter speed!”

To put it simply, shutter speed refers to the time a camera sensor is exposed to light. A faster shutter speed would allow less light, thus a darker image, while a slow shutter speed would expose the sensor to more light, hence the brighter image. Faster shutter speed also created sharper images, while slower shutter speeds added a blur to the result. It was basic knowledge, one of the things taught to us every year at the start of the school year.

It didn’t take that long to explain. Besides, everyone here already knew what it did. The five of us had been in this club for a long time, and since it was basic knowledge, Nadia already knew about it.

“But lessons alone aren’t special, are they?” Prez wiggled her fingers. “What’s special is the fact that we’re going to practice outside of school!”

The four of us raised our hands in excitement. Nadia came closer to me.

“Are you always stuck in school?”

“Not always, but going out is pretty rare.”

Our school allowed clubs to hold meetings outside of the school area, but the club president must have special permission, and the club advisor must be there with them. I remember Prez saying that the paperwork is a pain, so she didn’t like doing it. As a result, we always celebrated whenever we went out.

A knock came on our door. It was Mister Harry. He acted as our club advisor. When he saw the number of people sitting in class, a wry smile appeared on his lips.

“Another quiet day, huh?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“At least we won’t need an extra car,” he said. We gathered our belongings and went to the parking lot. Mr. Harry started up his car.

“Where are we going?” our underclassman asked.

“Had she not told you?” Mister Harry glanced at Prez.

Prez, smiling pridefully, shook her head. “Of course not, it’s a surprise-”

“We’re going to Jatinegara.”

“... Huh?”

“Specifically, the train station there.”

The Prez seemed bummed out by him spoiling the fun, but Mister Harry didn’t care.

“If any of you had anything to do after this, you can go home now.”

He wouldn’t consider the trip as something club members must participate in.

“I can go,” Vice-Prez said.

“I can as well,” my underclassman said.

“Alright, anyone else?”

“Me, I have-”

“You're going whether you want to or not.”

“Is my opinion not-”

“You're the one who organized this.”

“... Fine…” Prez said dejectedly. Did she really think she could throw the responsibilities to Mister Harry?

“Harto and Carol?”

“We're good,” Carol answered. I nodded in agreement.

“The new member? Sorry, Nadia, is it?”

“Yes, I can go!” Nadia raised her hand in excitement.

“Alright.”

We entered Mister Harry’s SUV. Prez sat in front, while me, Nadia, and Carol sat in the middle row. Vice-prez and our underclassman sat in the rear. After making sure everyone was in, Mister Harry headed out of the school. The GPS he set showed a twenty-minute drive.

“Thanks for driving us there, Mister Harry,” I said.

“No problem, it’s my responsibility.”

“Why a train station, though?” Nadia asked.

“It’s got a lot of fast-moving trains, perfect for our material,” Prez said. “There's also a busy street next to it.”

Shutter speed is used to control the blur on moving objects. It could be used to make certain parts sharp and other parts blurry. The image would have a moving effect, despite the picture itself not moving.

“Ah, right.”

A slight traffic slowed us down, but nothing major. It ended up taking about twenty-five minutes.

“Whoa…”

Mr. Harry dropped us by the side of the road before setting off to find a parking space. We climbed on a pedestrian bridge that crossed above the tracks.

“Remember that we’re going to be on a public bridge. Stay on one side and prioritize the people passing by.” For the first time in a while, Prez acted like a club president. Well… she did act a couple of times seriously before. Luckily, the bridge itself was wide enough for three people to walk side-by-side, so we didn't need to worry about traffic too much.

We arrived just as a train passed. Nadia's eyes followed it as it sped away. Jatinegara station had a mix of both local commuter trains and long-distance inter-city trains. This gave the station’s traffic a lot of variation.

“Oh, and be careful not to drop your cameras.”

Despite being in the photography club, only Carol and the Prez had a proper camera. Nadia used her phone, which is the newest model on the market. She wouldn’t need a proper camera with that one. The rest of us used our smartphones, which were regular models. Smartphones do have the settings in their manual mode. We could play around with that.

The sun shone high above, with no cloud in sight. The brightness allowed us to play with the settings a lot more. Reducing the brightness was much easier compared to increasing it.

The trains weren’t the only thing we could take pictures of. We were right next to a busy road. We could take pictures of passing cars and buses. Although we might need to censor their plates if they were privately owned.

“Whoa, there are so many people down there…” Nadia murmured.

A group of students lined up on the platform. They entered as soon as a train came by. Nadia tried to take a picture as the train departed.

“... It’s dark?”

I came closer.

“You need to change this setting here.”

“Ah, alright.”

Changing the shutter speed and the ISO allowed her to get a better brightness in the picture.

“Oh, and make sure not to take pictures of other people’s faces. We don’t want to be sued,” Prez said, half joking but half serious.

Nadia smiled wryly. “They took pictures of me all the time.”

“Well, you are famous. There’s that dude over there trying to take a picture of you.” Prez motioned at a person standing on the far end of the bridge. He had his camera out, clearly pointed at Nadia.

“Do you want me to chase him away?”

Nadia waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Still, thank you for the offer.”

I turned my head away. I may be in the photography club, but I didn’t like having my picture taken. Just personal preference. I didn’t mind if I was in the background, but I stood close to Nadia. If that photo gets published, I’m bound to be next to her.

“I wouldn’t mind regular photos, honestly, if they just ask.”

Being near Nadia would naturally push me into the spotlight, whether I like it or not. Something I need to consider moving forward.