Micael Widell Newsletter #19: My Top 10 Favorite Photography YouTubers
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
My 10 Favorite Photography Youtubers
I subscribe to around 100 channels on YouTube. Mostly photographers and videographers. Today I went through them all and picked out my 10 favorite channels, to give you some inspiration and ideas on YouTubers to follow. Enjoy! They are listed below in no particular order – click the name of the photographer to visit their channel.
Sam Kolder
Sam Kolder is a mindblowingly good cinematographer/videographer. Watch some of his videos and prepare to get blown away by his stunning drone footage, eyecatching transitions and crazy daredevil stunts. I found Sam's channel just a few weeks ago, and he actually inspired me to try FPV Cinematic drones (more on that at the end of this newsletter).
Brae Hunziker
Brae is perhaps my favorite of all YouTubers right now. Epic drone footage of beautiful landscapes, laid back and humble person in front of the camera, and some nice film photography. There are a lot of film photography YouTubers, but none of them come close to Brae's production quality if you ask me. My favorite video of his is this one, watch it to get a taste and make sure not to miss the drone segment in the middle!
Mathieu Stern
My favorite video from Mathieu is probably the one where he goes to Iceland to make a lens out of an iceberg. And this video says a lot about Mathieu's channel – a lot of focus on vintage lenses and weird experimental lenses. He is also a great portrait photographer, so you can also learn a thing or two about making nice portraits and photos in general.
Sean Tucker
Sean has risen fast as a photography YouTuber, and it is for good reason. After watching one of his videos for the first time, I immediately binge-watched 5-10 more, just because I enjoyed his way of talking so much. He approaches photography from a philosophical angle and with a perspective that encompasses life as a whole.
Mattias Burling
What I most appreciate about fellow Swede Mattias is that he predominantly reviews older cameras, that might be forgotten, but that still perform very well by today's standards. More than once he has opened my eyes to cameras I didn't know existed, and that can be bought for a very reasonable price.
James Popsys
James' videos are just beautiful. Often with fantastic drone shots and mindblowing scenery. He is also a joy to listen to – well articulated thoughts on landscape photography. Even though I don't do much landscape photography myself, I enjoy his videos.
The Hybrid Shooter
The Hybrid Shooter is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to gear reviews. He brings up the most important aspects of a camera, both from a videography and photography standpoint. Furthermore, he often has very relevant and informative comparisons between competitors in the camera and lens world, to inform your buying decisions. He packs the most relevant information into his videos, and they are a joy to watch.
Thomas Shahan
Thomas doesn't post as often as the others on this list, but I feel I must include him, because whenever he publishes a new video, I immediately watch it. As you probably know by now, Thomas is the reason I got into macro photography - his beautiful photos and great tips about macro photography got me inspired and started. If you have an interest in macro photography you simply must watch his videos.
Evan Ranft
I've been following Evan since he had around 5000 subscribers. He is a down to earth photographer, with vlog style videos, where we get to follow him on photo walks and in his daily life, as he talks about editing, composition as well as other aspects of photography like making money, or creating photo books. Evan posts pretty often and I can highly recommend his channel.
digiDirect
A very good gear review channel. If there is a new camera I am interested in, I always watch digiDirect's review first. They manage to always cram in the answer to every question I have in just under 10 minutes. Extremely informative and objective camera and lens reviews from down under – highly recommended.
FPV Drones
A couple of weeks ago I got very interested in FPV drones. What sparked this was probably this video by Sam Kolder. I am not sure if he even uses FPV drones for this footage, but it definitely has the same vibe as the kind of footage you get out of a racing drone.
FPV means First Person View and refers to custom built (often home built) drones that you control via goggles you put over your eyes so that you have the same perspective as the drone. These drones are very, very, hard to fly compared to regular drones, and you need some hours of practice and hundreds of crashes before you can fly one safely.
I wanted to get into this because I love how the footage looks. I decided to purchase the very cheap Tinyhawk II RTF kit. It only costs around $200 for a complete kit with a tiny drone, FPV goggles, batteries and a remote control. Another great thing with it is that it is so small that you can fly it indoors without risking to hurt people or animals, and without risking to make dents in your furniture. I mounted a tiny 20 gram Insta360 go camera to my drone and recorded the video below. I have also trained a lot in a simulator to get to the point where I can fly this thing pretty accurately. I might make a video about the experience later.
Watch me fly here.
When I feel even more confident I might purchase a bigger cinewhoop drone so that I can mount a GoPro 4k camera on it to get some really cool footage. Check this video for more inspiration.
My Published Videos since the last newsletter
- 8 Ways to Make Money with Macro Photography
- Autumn Macro Photography Tips: Water Drops and Leaves
- 9 Composition Tips for Macro Photography
- 9 things that make Leica cameras different
Goodbye for now
Thank you for reading this far, and see you in a month! Feel free to follow me on YouTube, Instagram and 500px in the meantime. And also feel free to tell your friends about this newsletter, and to reply to it if you have feedback or comments :)
/Micael