Today I’m inviting you along for a road trip to central Iowa, through a few small towns and dirt roads. 

Along the way, I’m taking photos with the X100v, a camera that speaks a language I love listening to. 

I often talk about the importance of pre-visualization with my students. This is a way we can set out on a photographic journey with a specific end-point in mind. 

On today’s adventure, I’m thinking of 1970’s-era glossy magazines. The photographs in these publications were full of grain and saturated, imperfect color. The pages depict an America that was changing and shifting, becoming something different. 

Yet today, many of these places I visit seem stuck in the same time period. The vibrant future many of these towns hoped for often never materialized, so things are a little older. A little more faded than maybe they should be. 

So I dialed in some color settings on my Fuji X100v, a camera that looks a little like the old cameras my uncles and father used. I increased the grain and saturation, while lowering the contrast and shifting some white balance settings. I saved these settings to my camera in a profile called “Nostalgic Road.” 

And with each photo, I’m not just capturing a scene or location, but a current moment in time that has a connection to our history as a country. 

These photographs are imperfect. Grainy. The colors are slightly shifted. The sky a little bluer than it should be… but it’s all part of the vision, a way of seeing the world through the eyes of a camera that helps me bring my artistic vision to life. 

You’ll find the recipe below the gallery!

“Nostalgic Road” Jpeg Recipe:

Film Simulation: Classic Chrome

Grain Effect: Strong

Grain Size: Small

Color Chrome Effect: Off

Color Chrome FX Blue: Strong

White Balance Shift: R:3. B:3

Highlight Tone: -1

Shadow Tone: -1

Color: +2

Sharpness: -3

Noise Reduction: -4

Clarity: -1

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