Completed
1949. Perrie Edwards, daughter of the influential General Edwards, lives in affluence and abundance among parties attended by the rich and noble and is betrothed to Sergeant Christopher Taylor.
On the other side of London lives Jade Thir...
"Are you coming for dinner tonight?" I asked Jade before she left for work, she nodded, it was the 10th of May 1950 and I realised that it was only four days until the anniversary of our first encounter, I knew that given the circumstances leading up to our meeting, it wasn't a good day for Jade, so I decided that for the occasion I would do something special and distract her from negative thoughts.
I took the camera Jade had given me and the car keys, I got in and drove to Boots the Chemist on Regent Street remembering that there was a dedicated photography area inside the shop, I walked in and headed to the photography department, I looked around admiring all the cameras and accessories.
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A/N - Photography department of Boots the Chemist on Regent Street in London
"Do you need any help, miss?" the man at the counter asked me, I turned and smiled at him nodding and approaching, I took my camera and placed it on the desk.
"Good morning, it was given to me as a gift and I would like to take the film" I said politely.
The clerk smiled at me and disappeared to the back returning with three small boxes, "It's a 35mm, how many poses?" he asked and I frowned in confusion, he smiled and continued, "12, 24 or 36 shots?" he asked.
"36" I replied confidently.
"Do you know how it works?" I shook my head and he turned the camera around making me look inside the peephole, "To focus you have to turn the crank, he pointed to a lever, and this button is used to adjust the shutter speed"
"The shutter speed?"
"The time the shutter stays open and absorbs light, the more light there is, the shorter the exposure time must be, the less light there is the longer it must stay open to allow the shutter to absorb as much light as possible. 1/125 means 1 hundred and twenty-fifth of a second, 1/50 1 fiftieth and so on" he explained, I asked him a few more questions and paid.
"How do I process them?" I asked him as I re-entered the shop with a confused look on my face, I had missed exactly the main part.
"It's very complicated, miss" he told me condescendingly but recovered when I glared at him, "Well, first you have to find a room with no light at all, you have to buy a lot of chemicals and process the roll of film with the negatives first, then you can choose which of the poses to get on photographic paper" he told me.
"How do I know how long the photographs have to stay in the substances to react?" I asked him having read some information about analogue development of photographs but having very limited knowledge of the subject.
"Here, take this" he told me going to pick up a small book behind the counter, "Here are all the instructions" he smiled, "If I may take the liberty, I would advise you to take a 12 film to do the first test, once you have placed the film in the chemical bath, all the poses will undergo the reaction, don't waste the 36 one for a test" he suggested.
