Charles Henry 9/2/25 Charles Henry 9/2/25

Layered

A 50mm lens is more front-to-back than side-to-side and compresses things together, perfect for layering foregrounds over backgrounds. It looks more deadpan than a 35mm.

Charles Henry 8/22/25 Charles Henry 8/22/25

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. It’s prints, posts, and film resting inside a trusty binder, while enjoying life and giving others room.

Charles Henry 8/9/25 Charles Henry 8/9/25

Film Emulation

It’s fine to digitally emulate a film photography. A pack of monochrome 8x10 sells for $250, a $150 rise from a decade ago. Some 35mm rolls fetch $15. Film photography was once the primary method for taking images.

Charles Henry 7/18/25 Charles Henry 7/18/25

Wooden Tripod

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

Charles Henry 7/5/25 Charles Henry 7/5/25

Film

It’s pictures made with film that I want to print most — a perfect blend of being choosy and patient.

Charles Henry 6/18/25 Charles Henry 6/18/25

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.

Charles Henry 6/8/25 Charles Henry 6/8/25

Clipped Corners

A ground glass will have missing corners so you can see if the lens is projecting from edge to edge. If you can see the lens, it’s giving full coverage.

Charles Henry 5/30/25 Charles Henry 5/30/25

f/8 and be there

F/8 is typically the most optimal aperture for everyday lenses.

Charles Henry 5/23/25 Charles Henry 5/23/25

Faithful

A faithful rendering is accurate to the scene and subject as viewed through the eye.

Charles Henry 5/15/25 Charles Henry 5/15/25

A Home in the Monochrome

In every color image I take, I see a black-and-white photographer trying to escape. It’s black-and-white or bust. Mine are pictures of rust, dents, and dust.

Charles Henry 4/29/25 Charles Henry 4/29/25

Harsh Daylight

I’ve tried to photograph harsh light for years. Unlike film, digital has less latitude in bright light, which is why you must find techniques to elevate consistency.

Charles Henry 2/26/25 Charles Henry 2/26/25

35, 50

Wide and telephoto touch somewhere between 35 and 50, which means every lens over 50 is called a telephoto and every one below 35 is considered wide, making 35 the longest wide-angle and 50 the widest telephoto.

Charles Henry 2/12/25 Charles Henry 2/12/25

Auxiliary Viewfinders

Forget new lenses and camera specs. One of the most freeing things we can add to our photography is an auxiliary viewfinder because it removes precision.

Charles Henry 1/26/25 Charles Henry 1/26/25

HEIC

Who wants to fidget with large raw files? A JPEG is good enough, and now we have 10-bit HEIC.

Charles Henry 12/27/24 Charles Henry 12/27/24

35 is a lonesome focal length

A 35mm pushes backgrounds away and magnifies foregrounds.

Charles Henry 11/16/24 Charles Henry 11/16/24

Wildly kind and kindly wild

How do we remember a place?

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Studio

A note is a few words in a sentence or two; a picture is an individual frame, and a finding blends text with imagery.

Charles Henry 10/14/24 Charles Henry 10/14/24

The Rule of Thirds

View something, then around and past it.

Charles Henry 10/12/24 Charles Henry 10/12/24

Warming

Warming filters, where have you been my whole life? A wide open sky in West Texas creates a blue color cast, and the warming filter, when white balance is set to daylight, removes it.

Charles Henry 8/28/24 Charles Henry 8/28/24

Lightroom

We need to be clear about what Adobe Lightroom is and not. Lightroom is software that lets us organize, edit, and develop a personal style. It’s not where we will see our camera’s best imaging quality.