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Captain’s log

In July I had vacation but I still couldn’t stop myself from producing five videos. I love doing this work so much, and now that my views are on a level where I am close to making a living from it, I get even more pumped and inspired to keep going. I am also seeing an increase in people joining my Patreon, which I am so thankful for.

During the month I passed 70 000 subscribers which was celebrated with a Q&A video as tradition holds. In another video I showed that a shutter speed of 1/20 s can create very nice macro photos. I also made a video about the four reasons I fell in love with macro photography.

Captain’s log

June was crazy (this is the title of my latest video summarizing the month)! For the first time since I started my YouTube channel I was able to truly work full time on Youtube. It resulted in 12 videos (the normal for me is 3-5 videos per month) and crazy growth on YouTube. My channel grew from around 3500 views/day which I have been getting for the past two years, to around 15000 views/day. And I have been having so much fun making these videos and seeing this growth. I also created my most ambitious Patreon bonus video ever, and got 20 new Patreon supporters during the month.

Captain’s log

May was a very nice month for me and my photography. Summer is finally here again, and the insects are back after a long winter. I did a Laowa 60mm photography walk. I tried my Godox V350 flash and compared it to my Meike MK320. I did some freehand macro photography with a $20 microscope lens mounted on a 3d printed adapter! And I got inspired by a member of my Discord chat server, to make an Ecosphere – a closed ecosystem in a jar.

I also did a philosophical video for my Patreon supporters, explaining how my three sabbaticals that I have taken throughout life, has changed my life for the better and made me find my Youtube/photography career.

Captain’s log

April was… kind of meh for me. Nothing really exciting happened. So this newsletter is short.

I made some videos though. I tested Laowa’s new focal reducer for the probe lens. I reviewed the worst photo book I have seen so far. I tried my hands at slow-motion macro videography. And I made a video about 4 habits that will save you from some of the most common photography mistakes.

Captain’s log

In the beginning of March, I felt very bored and uninspired to do Youtube videos. I think it is partly because my Youtube channel hasn’t been growing in daily views for the last 1.5 years or so, and sometimes motivation dwindles when I don’t see any progress for long periods of time. I decided to take two steps back and just not do any youtube videos until my inspiration would return.

I spent the downtime listening to lots of podcasts with successful youtubers like Mr Beast, to get insight and inspiration. I also studied my own analytics to try to understand why my channel hasn’t grown. The main takeaway is that during 2017-2020, I constantly had 3-4 “hit videos” that the youtube algorithm would push to new people every day. This constituted my growth. But during 2021-2022 I haven’t really had any new hit videos, and the old ones have slowly faded out.

Captain’s log

February was a great month for me! I got time to work, I made videos I was excited about – I simply enjoyed life and work as one should.

Today as I am writing this newsletter, I feel very happy that it is getting brighter outside in the mornings and evenings, as the middle of the winter is so very dark here in Sweden. I am happy that spring is approaching and that I can soon start doing insect macro photography again. I am excited about it being only 2-3 months until my daughter starts kindergarten, which means I will have basically double the time to work on my photography and youtube videos.

Captain’s log

It’s getting really tiring for me, and probably for you as well, with this intro section so often being about my children being sick and home from preschool, and therefore me not being able to work very much. But that’s kind of what happened during January as well.

Despite this, I managed to get a few videos done; I gave you my 21 best ideas for indoor macro photography, I reviewed a very interesting nifty-fifty lens for Sony, and I came up with a theory of why black pro-mist filters do not really work for macro photography. I also made a video for my Patreon supporters listing 7 books and films that changed my life.

Captain’s log

This month’s newsletter is very late and short – I usually try to write them as soon as the month changes. The explanation is that our whole family, including our small children, got sick in fever, sore muscles and coughing around New Year’s eve. A couple of days in we tested positive for covid. Interesting sidenote is that both me and my wife are vaccinated, and my mother-in-law even had three jabs, the most recent one in November – and still we all got severily sick. My guess is we caught the omicron strain, as we did not have too much trouble with coughing, and as that one seems to be extremely contagious even for vaccinated people.

So it has been a rough start of the year. But I am happy we all got through it fairly quickly and seemingly without losing taste or smell. Now we have all been feeling healthy for a couple of days, and I can finally start my 2022 :)

Captain’s log

November was a good month! I tried the MIOPS splash device, something I want to play around more with in the future. I got to be one of the first people in the world to play with Laowa’s new super-tiny ultra macro lens. I did an experimental long-form video where I shoot, develop, scan and edit a roll of medium format film in real time.

Captain’s log

October was a pretty regular month for me. Not too boring, not too exciting. I made a Q&A video to celebrate 60 000 subscribers on youtube. I reviewed a smartphone macro lens. I tried videography as opposed to photography, to document an event in my life. I came up with a 5 step methodology to improve my photography style. I tried a Soviet macro lens. I tried a new photo sharing app for photographers. And I did a Patreon-only video with my best tips on how to sell and buy used gear.

That’s about it :) This month’s newsletter will be pretty short, as I am late with it and have lots of other work to attend to – I will just leave you with some inspiring and beautiful photos that I have found recently. Enjoy!

Captain’s log

September was a very unusual month for me, in good and in bad ways. This month I was the most distracted I’ve ever been from doing my photography and youtube work, but I discovered something new and very interesting that I think will change the future for everyone who is in art or photography.

A big part of the reason I was distracted from my regular work, was that we were travelling for a couple of weeks during the month, and the weeks we weren’t travelling my son was sick and at home. This means that for pretty much the whole month, my son was not in kindergarten, and thus required company. When you have two small kids and they are both at home, it is very hard to do focused work. You can only do “light work”, like some intermittent reading and research while keeping the children company. But going out photographing or editing videos is hard for me to do when I cannot focus 100% on that task.

Captain’s log

August was a bit of a tough month for my creative endeavours. Partly because I had less hours than normally to do work, partly because the work I did was mostly lens and gear reviews. I have noticed that I enjoy doing pure photography videos a lot more than I enjoy doing gear review videos. But every time some manufacturer or agent e-mails about a new exciting product that I can be one of the first in the world to try out, I often eagerly say yes immediately before remembering that it actually is pretty tedious work to make a proper review of a product.

I also felt slightly burned out from macro photography. I feel like I’m not really progressing in my style – I’m getting a bit bored with my photos. I want to find a more unique expression in my photography. I feel like I am ready for it. I have done my five years of groundwork, learning the basics of photography and macro photography on a technical level – now I need to make unique art with it, that really stands out in some way. I am pretty confident I will find this expression eventually if I keep going, but I am not sure when and how.

Captain’s log

July was a hectic but nice month for me. My three year old son was home from preschool + 5 month old daughter = lots of time and energy just keeping the children happy. But I found some time to do photography and other fun things, like lots of FPV drone practice.

Captain’s log

June has been a pretty nice month for me. I did not produce as many youtube videos as I normally do though, due to the whole family having a long and pretty severe cold. At least it was not COVID - we tested and it was negative. And now both me and my wife have gotten our first vaccine shot, which feels awesome.

During June I tried a new concept - POV photo walks. It means that I put an action camera on my forehead and record a video where you get to see everything from my perspective. It was fun, and everyone who commented on the videos seemed to love them, so that will definitely be something I am going to do more of.

Tomorrow we are going to leave our local area for the first time since February 2020, to go to Boden to visit my wife’s mom. Looking forward to changing environment for a bit!

Captain’s log

May was a good month. Not spectacular, but not bad. Just good. I made many solid new videos. I had a lot of time for my family. I enjoyed life.

/Micael

My favorite photo of May

Captain’s log

I have always wanted to post 2+ videos per week, but never ever have I been close to actually doing it. In April I did 9 videos in one month! I am so happy that I managed to do that. Don’t know how exactly how I could pull this off, as I typically produce not more than 3-4 videos per month, even when I push myself. I didn’t have more time than normally to work during April, so that is not the explanation.

I think what happened was that I have finally settled in to the new life situation with a newborn child and our older child, and managed to optimize every day so that I can make the most out of it work wise, even though I only have around 2-3 hours per day of pure time to work. One important factor is that I get to sleep a lot more during the nights now than before, so I don’t have to take precious time out of my very short workday to take naps. Another factor is that once I had managed to squeeze out two videos a week for two weeks, I think I crossed some kind of mental barrier and I realized that it isn’t actually that hard once you decide to do it and find a rhythm to the planning and the work.

Captain’s log

March was a month where I struggled to find enough time to do my photography/youtube work, due to our newborn daughter still needing lots of attention 24/7 and a nasty cold that hit the whole family. We are now finally all in good shape again, so I am hoping that April will bring more hours to spend on photography, especially now since the macro photography season has really kicked off in Stockholm, with lots of insects outside!

/Micael

I started a Discord Server

Captain’s log

February 2021 was the month I went from part-time to full-time youtuber. But despite that I have less time than ever to make my videos now, because I also have a newborn daughter (and a three year old son). So on average I get to work undisturbed maybe 2 hours per day. But that’s fine - it averages to about one video per week. And as time goes on I will likely get some more time per day to work on my photography and videos.

Either way it feels amazing to be able to focus on only family, health and photography, without anything else getting in the way, and with full control over my time. No deadlines, no outside pressure - just spending every day having fun, making videos, doing photography and enjoying time with the family. This is the happiest and most enjoyable life I think I can live. I feel truly blessed to be able to live this way now, even though I have of course worked hard for many years to be able to reach this point.

In this newsletter I am going to recommend some very talented photographers that I found on Instagram, people to follow and get inspired by!

Captain’s log

So when you thought that the world and the internet couldn’t get much weirder, 2021 kicks off in the weirdest of ways. Feels like we have entered a new era where memes and crowds on the Internet has gained a new magnitude of power to shake society.

Captain’s log

So here we are, at the other end of 2020.

For me personally, 2020 wasn’t all that bad. Sure, it was slightly worse than any of my most recent years. But it was better than many other years earlier in my life. I am very fortunate not to have suffered any financial or health consequences of the pandemic, nor has anyone close to me. How was your 2020?

The main thing that made 2020 tough for me was that I was bogged down by too much work – a sometimes demanding dayjob combined with all the work that goes into my YouTube channel. And on top of that being a parent in times when my son had to be home from preschool a lot, and we couldn’t get any help from grandparents without risking their lives…

Captain’s log

November has been a pretty bad month in terms of my photography. I think one of the main reasons is that it has been so dark and rainy outside here in Stockholm, which isn’t very inspiring. Sun goes up around 9 AM and goes down again before 3 PM. And I haven’t actually seen the sun in weeks, because it is hidden behind a thick layer of rainclouds. It often feels like the night doesn’t really fully turn into day, until it is night again. But I did venture out a couple of times to photograph in the darkness.

One thing I picked up in November was FPV drone flying, which has been so much fun. I have made a new video about my entry into this hobby, that I will post as soon as the sponsor approves it. The nice thing with this hobby is that you can practice it indoors, which is what I have spent quite a bit of time doing.

Captain’s log

Hi ya’ll! I’ve had a pretty okay month, even though I’ve been sick a lot in colds, which really sucks. Before I became a parent I was almost never sick, but since my son started in preschool 1.5 years ago I have had like 10-15 colds per year. I guess I just need to cycle through all the viruses that circulate among kids these days and get immune to them all…

In this newsletter the focus is to inspire you by giving you my top 10 photography youtube channels.

/Micael

Captain’s log

September was a pretty good month for me. Had a good rhythm in making YouTube videos and enjoyed it a lot. Tried interesting lenses and cameras such as the Panasonic GM5 and the Mitakon 25mm f/0.95, the Helios 44-M (video coming later), and the wonderful RX0ii video camera. Want to learn more? Read on! :)

/Micael

Captain’s log

Almost 2000 subscribers - wow! Thank you for being part of this little group where I can share thoughts, ideas and inspiration that do not naturally fit in any of my other channels.

/Micael

Making a living through art

Captain’s log

This newsletter is a few days late. Sorry. I do not always manage to get it out on the 1st of the month, even though that is my goal.

July was mostly vacation for me. I still worked though, but only on my photography and youtube stuff, not on my part time job as a software developer.

I found and photographed them, which was awesome because one of my goals this year was to find jumping spiders (never ever saw one earlier, or at least I didn’t take notice). I got to play around with the legendary . I got to test the very affordable but pretty great . I made . I made a video on . I also obsessed a lot over instant film photography, which you can read about below. Furthermore, I just took some time here and there to relax deeply and read a book or two. A pretty good July.

Captain’s log

June was a kind of “meh” month for me in terms of photography. Not great, not bad. Lost a bit of inspiration, but think I have regained it now. Might make a YouTube video soon on how to regain lost inspiration – would you like that?

Feels like Sweden is “done” with the COVID19 lockdown now. Even though we didn’t really have a lockdown – but a lot of places did close business for a period. One of them was my favorite museum, Fotografiska in Stockholm. It has now reopened again. Went there the other day. You had to book a timeslot and only a few people were allowed in at a time. I think there were like 5 people in total in my timeslot, so I pretty much had the whole museum to myself. Awesome feeling – best way to spend some me-time and gain some new photography inspiration :)

Captain’s log

Hi friends! This newsletter is later than usual. The reason for that is that I took on a consulting gig at the beginning of May, thinking the project would only by like 5 hours. It proved to be a completely different project though, and I ended up spending 100+ hours on it, which kind of turned my life upside down. Now that project is complete though, and I can go back to my normal, less stressful, life and go back to photography and youtube again :)

This newsletter is focused on awesome photographers/photos that I want to recommend for inspiration. Macro season is here in the northern hemisphere, and if you are not under lockdown it is time to really harness all the beauty in nature right now!

/Micael

Captain’s log

This will be a short edition of the newsletter, as I am pretty swamped with work right now. But me and my family feel healthy and happy so far, and I hope all of you do so as well.

Spring is coming to Sweden, but it hasn’t really been that warm yet – it is a pretty cold spring so far. Mostly I have been photographing ants, which I have made videos about (more on that later in this newsletter).

Looking forward to even warmer weather and a wider variety of insects outside to photograph soon. Sweden’s way of handling the coronavirus has been quite centered around the concept “think for yourselves” so we are still allowed to be outside as much as we want, which I am thankful for.

Captain’s log

So March 2020 was the weirdest month in a long time, for obvious reasons. Although my day-to-day lifestyle did not change as much as many other people’s, when the whole world is in a historic state of emergency, you get a very special and always present low-intensity stress in your body and mind that just sits there.

In normal times I spend a lot of time at home, or close to my home, so my day-to-day activities haven’t changed a lot. But we kept our two year old son home from kindergarten most of March (he had a couple of colds, and we kept him home a few days extra each time, just to be on the safer side), which made our lives pretty stressful, as the amount of spare time (ie. time when not working or taking care of the child) almost went to zero.

So in conclusion, me and my family are healthy and well and have nothing to complain about really, but I didn’t have much time to do photography. I did however, manage to publish five YouTube videos, which you find links to at the bottom of this e-mail.

Captain’s log

February was a good month. I got to travel to Spain to do macro photography. I published five YouTube videos. I got to test interesting gear, such as the Mitakon 85mm 1x-5x rev2 lens and the Mitakon 35mm f/0.95 lens (review coming soon), as well as try smartphone macro photography. Below a summary of exciting photography related things I found during February. Enjoy :)

Buy my prints

For the first time ever, I will now offer prints of some of my favorite macro shots. You, dear subscriber of this newsletter, is the first one to get the opportunity to buy a print. Not only that, but you will get a 25% discount with the discount code which is valid until the end of March 2020.

Captain’s Log

Hi friends, all 1201 of you! January has been a pretty “meh” month for me in terms of photography. Winters are of course never a highlight for a macro photographer like me, who loves to shoot insects and flowers. But sometimes in the winter, I can find great enjoyment in photographing frost, ice or snow.

This winter however, in Stockholm where I live, has been just dark and snow-free. So it has been hard for me to find nice things to photograph. The photo below of my son (Samyang 35mm f/1.4 + Sony A7III) sums up the weather we’ve had pretty well. Rain, +3 degrees Celsius, darkness.

Captain’s log

2020 is over. I made a video to summarize my year in photography and on YouTube. It was a good year for me. A happy and fulfilling year. Despite having a “normal job” for 3 days a week, and a two year old son, and despite moving apartments during the year, I still managed to get quite a lot of photography and YouTube work done.

The major downside with 2019 for me, which prevented it from being a fantastic year, was that I was sick a lot. Everyone who has had a small child starting preschool can attest to the same – you get hit by many different viruses and end up sick a lot in the first year. So hopefully my immune system is super powerful after all this.

Captain’s log

Hi friends, all 1004 of you! In personal news, November has been the shittiest month in a long time for me, as I have been constantly sick in colds and flus the entire month. However, I have somehow still managed to collect 540 words of photography inspiration in this newsletter. Enjoy!

Star Wars Insects

Captain’s log

As I am reviewing my October of 2019 in terms of photography, to distill the most interesting things to write in this newsletter, I realize that this was an unusually uneventful month. This newsletter will be a bit shorter than usual.

We are now 930 people who consume this newsletter – welcome all new subscribers!

Seven Instagram finds

Captain’s log

So September happened, and this is a 1000 word summary of that month from my perspective. We are now 844 subscribers to this newsletter, which makes me very happy. Welcome all new ones, and thanks to the old guard for staying around!

Featured Photographer in September

Captain’s log

For me, August 2019 was all about dipping my toes in the big sea of analog photography for the first time. I bought a Mamiya M645 1000s medium format film camera, and began shooting and developing black and white. Later I also purchased a Holga 120 CFN toy camera (will probably make a video about it). As I am writing this, I have just finished developing my very first roll of color film (Portra 400).

Despite all the work and costs involved, I find myself unexpectedly enjoying film photography quite a bit. Not sure if I will still be doing it in a couple of months, but right now I just want to learn more and try even more films and cameras! If you want to rejuvenate your photography, and so far only did digital, I recommend you to watch on how to get started quickly, easily and cheaply with analog photography, and to try it yourself – if you find my video even the slightest inspiring. Even if you happen to find yourself not loving it, I promise you will learn something that might be useful in your digital photography!

Captain’s log

Over the past month we doubled in size again, from 298 to 625 subscribers. Thank you for being interested in this newsletter and welcome all new subscribers! I’m the Swedish photography guy on YouTube, who mostly does macro photography, in case you don’t remember signing up for this newsletter. This edition is packed with my best 1000 words of photography inspiration and tips, as always.

Moon Landing Anniversary

Captain’s log

We have grown from 130 to 298 subscribers since the last issue. I am very happy about the interest in this newsletter. Welcome all new subscribers! In this newsletter I summarize my personal thoughts and highlights from the passed month in terms of photography.

For me personally it has been a pretty good month. I tested new and interesting gear, I had a lot of fun with photography, learned the basics of focus stacking, and I published four new YouTube videos.

A surprising thing for me was how well received was. Usually when I make longer videos where I mostly just talk, they do not get that many views or comments. So I was happily surprised to see that this video was quite popular. I will probably make another one.

Captain’s log

During May, me, my wife, and son finally moved from our small apartment to a much bigger one. It meant packing 50 cubic metres of stuff into boxes, cleaning and fixing broken things in the old apartment, as well as unpacking all the boxes in our new home. It also meant that I had almost no time for photography and for making youtube videos, sorry about that.

We are now 130 subscribers to this newsletter, compared to 31 in the last issue. Thank you everyone who subscribed, and please reply with feedback if you have any :)

Interesting Kickstarter campaign

Captain’s log

Welcome to the very first edition of my photography newsletter! You (yes you!) are part of a brave little group of 31 people who have volunteered up to follow the journey of this newsletter from the very beginning. I have no idea where this newsletter will go over the coming months, but I have wanted to explore the concept for a while, so let us find out together. Thank you for signing up!

The format will probably shift a bit during the first few months of this newsletter, as I try different approaches and types of content, and as you guys give me feedback (please do reply if you have feedback, but please keep it short and succinct :)

The plan for now, is to have a few recurring headers – the ones below. I figure that around 1000 words is the right length, and that I keep a pace of one newsletter per month. What do you think about that?