Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

Fujifilm just announced the introduction of the INSTAX MINI 12, worthy successor to the well-liked MINI 11, and Shutterbug was allowed to run a sample through its paces several days prior to the launch. Consistent with instant photography’s shoot-and-share mindset, the MINI 12 is a fun, easy-to-use camera that we expect to be well received.

DALL·E 2 from OpenAI (the folks who gave us ChatGPT) uses AI to convert plain language text strings into realistic images and art. We typed in “Digital camera that looks like a red pepper” and DALL·E 2 generated the image you see here (we added the Shutterbug nameplate). For lovers of imaging, DALL·E 2 is addictive. Read more to view a few other things DALL·E 2 generated for us, and learn how to begin turning your words in pictures.

Minor League Baseball trumps the Big Leagues. Tickets are significantly cheaper, atmosphere is casual and parking is way easier. Plus the players are playing for heart, not purse. Although ballplayers on the farm teams may not have the talent or skills of the guys in The Show, the action—and therefore your chance for a great shot—is equal.

Here’s your guide to finding the teams near you, preparing for the event, and coming back with the most rewarding photos.

There’s a new tabletop tripod in the JOBY stable, the slim, sleek PodZilla. Perfect for cell phone photography, it includes a cleverly designed rotating smartphone grip. Here we compare it a longtime favorite, the JOBY GorillaPod 3K Kit.

The SnapGrip Creator Kit from ShiftCam lets you hold your smartphone like a camera, charges the battery, lights up the scene and provides a stable tabletop support. It’s very well made and practically attaches itself.

If you have a recent iPhone it probably defaults to Live Photo and stores images as files that have an HEIC file name extension. Here’s how to change the default to shoot regular still images and save them as the JPEGs you’re accustomed to. But HEIC (High Efficiency Image File format), better known as HEIF, is better than JPEG in many ways, and after learning a bit about it you may not want to revert back to your old, comfortable JPEG files.