Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

Can you take a shot like this? Of course—it’s not difficult.

The Consumer Electronics Show (affectionately known as “CES”) is an annual gala event where manufacturers show off the best gadgets in the world. Held in Las Vegas right on the heels of the New Year’s holidays, more than 100,000 people are said to have attended CES in 2009. I was one of them.

My friend Toko is the best golfer I’ve ever known. He ordered new graphite shafts from a mail order company in Texas and reshafted his clubs by himself. When you hear these two facts you may think that he was using state-of-the art, custom-made equipment.

The problem with most photo backpacks is that they’re perfect for carrying cameras, lenses and a ton of small accessories, but perfectly awful when it’s time to pack anything larger. Yes, I know—some models will accommodate a notebook PC. But many of those require the mouse and AC adapter to share space with camera accessories.

A short time ago I was shooting with a Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens on a Canon EOS 40D and discovered something very surprising. When I reviewed the images of some leaves that were backlit against a bright sky I didn’t see any DPF. You know what DPF is, of course: Dreaded Purple Fringe. It usually inhabits the contrasty edges that separate highlight and shadow areas in some digital images. I’d upload an example, but I know you have plenty of your own.

On Thanksgiving morning I left home before eight and drove my Jeep 20 miles to photograph a farm I’ve been shooting for the past 15 years. Sometimes it’s hard to keep a relationship fresh and exciting for such a long period of time, but like an exciting woman, this subject reveals something new to me every time we meet.