Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Makeshift Rangefinder

You know when you think about it — a 35mm lens on a reflex camera (knowing that you’ll crop in later) mimics a rangefinder experience by letting you see outside the frame while composing pictures.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

5600ºK

If sunlight’s temperature sits between 5000ºK and 6500ºK, then 5600ºK is a good custom choice.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Taken Seriously

By all standards, I’m a lousy photographer, and that’s fine. 50mm might be the best focal length and 35mm the best lens — simply crop in a little.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Aspect Ratios

Focal lengths and aspect ratios correlate. A 50mm needs a narrower 4:5 to emphasize relationships between foregrounds and back grounds, and on the other side, a 28mm does better with a wider 3:2 because it emphasizes side-to-side relationships.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Taking or Making

In photographing landscapes, places, and found environments, perhaps the difference between making and taking lives in the focal length, where a 35mm takes, and a 50mm makes.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Enjoying the Day

Interesting places exist wherever we look long enough. Odessa is a real place, nothing touristy about it, so thoroughly palpable that it’s utterly clueless about itself in a good way, and that’s why I stay.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Keep Going

If you think it’s bad now, it used to be worse. That’s why I’m not too worried. You are a part of the change you would like to see.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

I don’t know what to tell ya

Bad advice permeates. Everyone offers it freely. The rarest thing is something helpful. So don’t worry. Go ahead and make a wrong decision and regret it later. It’s perfectly normal.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Complaining (a how to guide)

Live a great life. From wherever to whatever, I love taking pictures with my camera. It’s an obsession — a small footprint: prints, posts, and film resting inside a trusty binder.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Film Emulation

It’s fine to digitally emulate analog. A box of monochrome 8x10 sells for $250 — a $150 rise from a decade ago, and some 35mm rolls fetch $15. Analog was once the primary photographic method.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Wooden Tripod

I serviced the tripod today. I repaired a loose hinge, polished the head plate, and applied mineral oil to its wood.

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Notes, 2025 Charles Henry Notes, 2025 Charles Henry

Experiment

Many people know that we have more to learn, and from the moment we realize that we’re not the center of everything, it gets better.

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