Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

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Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jul 12, 2024

Turn mundane everyday subjects into intriguing creative images by distorting surrounding objects in an imaginative way with a Lensbaby Sweet 22. Here's our hands-on review and several images.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Feb 02, 2017

Unless you’re completely new to photography, you’ve heard about Lensbaby, the marvelously creative series of lenses that are best described as intentionally unsharp and stuffed with almost every imaginable aberration and distortion. The Lensbaby Trio 28 is the latest model, and it has a secret. 

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Aug 17, 2017

The Lensbaby Twist 60 is a very modern rendition of a 175-year-old optical design, and true to the designer, Joseph Petzval. But does it satisfy our creative expectations when used in the field?

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.

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