Gallery: recreating the past in Bodie

Let’s go living in the past
Ian Anderson (song by Jethro Tull)

I’m not a fan of living in the past. Nostalgia can be a dangerous exercise and too often people look back with rose-tinted glasses at a past that never really existed. But I do enjoy looking through sepia-tinted glasses from time to time!

In my previous post about Bodie I mentioned that I planned to experiment with some sepia edits as I felt they would work well in this setting. I’ve now done so, and these are my favourites of those I produced, sharing for this week’s theme-free Monochrome Madness. Some are versions of images shared in that earlier post but a few are different shots that I didn’t include last time.

I used Nik Silver Efex Pro for all these edits. I chose the pre-set called ‘Old Vintage’ which tones the image in a fairly strong sepia and adds grain. I then tweaked most of them with a slight pale vignette and in some instances also increased the contrast. I also removed a couple of hints of modernity such as a sign urging visitors not to climb on the old truck and a pair of distant tourists. My aim was to recapture the sense of a bygone era that I felt while exploring here.