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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Findings, 2025 Charles Henry Findings, 2025 Charles Henry

Interstate Twenty

The heat off the asphalt is a physical thing out here, but the horizon stays wide open. I had driven out to Monahans just to check on a building I remembered—to see if it was still standing the way it lived in my head. I found it, recorded it, but the day felt too open to turn back around.

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Findings, 2025 Charles Henry Findings, 2025 Charles Henry

Working Town

If people knew you were out there making pictures, you’d probably get in worse trouble, a proper way of going wrong. Odessa is a working town, and everyone needs a good way of going wrong.

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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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Findings, 2010 Charles Henry Findings, 2010 Charles Henry

Layered

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

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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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