Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

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Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jun 04, 2020  | 

Making a lens sharp and acceptably free of aberrations is hard. Very hard. Making a lens that can be both tack-sharp and intentionally soft, pleasantly unsharp and able to exploit the native beauty of certain optical aberrations is even harder. Then there’s Lensbaby.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jun 11, 2020  | 

Portraits, close-ups and numerous other creative compositions—the Lensbaby Velvet 85 does it all. Here’s a thorough review and several examples shot with this exciting lens.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Apr 16, 2015  | 

An effective camera support that could be used as a pillow when you snooze in the back of your pickup truck in a pinch? Hard to believe? Take my word for it—this thing is as sensible as it is functional. 

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  May 06, 2016  |  First Published: May 05, 2016  | 

I’m way too polite and well-mannered to come right out and say that photographers lie, so instead I’ll repeat some of the things I’ve heard them say and translate their words into language we can all understand, i.e., the truth. For example, when my friend told me, “Very useful blog this week, Jon!” she really meant, “You couldn’t write your way out of a paper bag, you schlub, but I ran out of Nyquil and I had to get to sleep somehow…”

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Oct 19, 2017  | 

If it wasn’t so corny I’d call the LitraTorch a pocket full of sunshine. Instead I’ll call it the future of portable constant lighting for videographers and photographers. 

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Aug 01, 2019  | 

The LitraPro is a compact, rechargeable, high-output LED light source that offers a broad spectrum of color temperature settings and is fully dimmable from 0% to 100%. The LitraPro operates up to 45 minutes at the highest power setting and, should you land on it when you fall into a 90-feet deep swimming pool, no problem—it won’t break or suffer water damage. Sounds incredible, no?

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Nov 26, 2015  | 

As a lover of all things unsharp, I was eager to get my mitts on a Petzval 85mm portrait lens. When I saw it at Photo Plus Expo here in New York, it was under glass, gleaming like a gilded idol. The fine folks at Lomography were kind enough to loan me a sample. What follows is my report. 

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Aug 05, 2015  | 

Gadget bags and photo backpacks comes and go. There are many reasons; styles change, materials improve; competitors rip off designs and build cheaper clones. Sometimes manufacturers develop “cost down” models to lower production costs and increase profits. But sometimes bags stick around for years and evolve into stronger, lighter, cooler and all-around better products. Lowepro decided to improve a very popular and good selling line, the Lowepro Photo Sport AW (All Weather) Backpack series. It takes a lot of nerve to try to improve upon a favorite. Did they succeed? Let’s find out

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jun 18, 2015  | 

Lowepro designers and engineers must gather around the workbench with a pile of camera bags and challenge each other to improve features—large and small—that are already pretty damn good to begin with. That’s the only way I can explain how their bags keep getting better and better. The updates to the Lowepro Pro Runner series, introduced in late May, prove my point.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Oct 20, 2023  | 

An exaggeration? Not in my opinion. These two innovative Lume Cube lighting tools are definitely the most fun and most versatile I've ever used. And both are controlled by the Lume Control app and your smartphone, so operation is easy and straightforward.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jul 11, 2014  | 

You may have used a beauty dish in the studio. Here’s a very portable model that you’ll find hard to leave at home. It’s quite affordable, too.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Sep 13, 2023  | 

Adobe announced major AI-generation news and the best thought-out, purposeful rules to protect nearly everyone in the source artist-to-end-user chain. Here are the major takeaways.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Sep 03, 2021  | 

Don’t wait! Plan your fall foliage photography forays now. Here are four interactive maps that help you predict when the fall colors peak in your area, plus a recommendation of three glass screw-in camera filters that make autumn colors more vibrant.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Mar 05, 2020  | 

I’m tired of hearing people mindlessly repeating nonsensical assumptions as though they were true facts. You and I may disagree on some of these points, and that’s fine—I certainly don’t know everything. But I have been around long enough to still practice that old maxim, “Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see,” which in a world that has a fascination with the internet becomes, “Don’t believe nothin’ ‘til you’ve checked it fer yourself.”

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Sep 19, 2019  | 

This lens has me going in circles. I spent weeks looking for a well-rounded person to photograph. Every image I captured was pointless. Okay—enough of the circle jokes. Time to get a round to the review.

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