Micael Widell Newsletter #2: Best Hashtags for your Instagram, Kickstarter Macro Book, Laowa 2.5x-5x Ultra Macro, Sean Tucker, Samyang 45mm f/1.8 and more.
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.
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Interesting Kickstarter campaign
This morning I found that Don Komarechka, a skilled macro photographer whom I follow on Instagram and also through the podcast Photo Geek Weekly, is currently raising money on Kickstarter to release a thick book with his best advice on macro photography. I love the idea of this, and it looks like it will get fully funded and actually produced. Go support Don and grab a copy yourself.
Most used gear this month
Venus Optics Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro
The only real photo walk I had time for this month was with the beautiful 25mm 5x Ultra macro lens from Venus Optics. I made a video documenting my experience. All in all, I love the lens, and it is a great option if you want to go beyond 2x magnification without having to build your own contraption. What I like most about the lens is the thin profile of it, making it easier to find the right angle to capture an insect sitting on a surface, without the lens getting in the way.
Captured with the Venus Optics Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra-Macro
Ricoh GR II
Another month with this wonderful camera. It is great for photography enthusiasts like me, who want to be able to capture a nice RAW file with decent dynamic range, even on the occasions where I don't feel like lugging around a beefy full frame camera with a heavy lens. The photo below is heavily cropped, and still super sharp. And I would not have captured it if I didn't have my GR II with me – as my iPhone 7 Plus' tiny sensor would not have been able to adequately capture the scene.
Shot on Ricoh GR II
Favorite YouTube video I watched
I follow quite a few photography YouTubers, and my favorite one is probably Sean Tucker. He is stellar at conveying information and thoughts in a simple and succinct way, and he is very humble and honest. One of his latest videos deals with speedlights for portraits, and if you want to take your portrait photography to the next level and make them look more professional, and haven't yet used speedlights, this video is a great introduction.
Favorite shot (not mine) stumbled upon this month
It is not often I stop and just go "wow!" when I see a photograph on Instagram, but it happened once during May for me. It was when I scrolled upon this stunning aerial photograph of Edinburgh, c. 1920, by Alfred G. Buckham. It has such a perfect composition, contrast, and interesting small details. Do you agree?
My favorite shot this month
I didn't get any amazing shots this month, but if I were to pick one favorite, it is this shot of a moth (?) sitting on a thin tree branch, with very shallow depth of field, captured with the Laowa 2.5x-5x lens.
Best hashtags for your Instagram posts
I used to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what hashtags are best to use when posting on Instagram, for maximum exposure. You want to use fairly big hashtags related to your post, but not the biggest ones, as they are too flooded and generic. But it is unreasonably time consuming to do this research to manually for each photo you post.
I found the service For Display Purposes Only, which does this for you: it gives you 30 highly relevant hashtags, formatted perfectly, ready to paste into your Instagram image caption. You just put in one or two hashtags related to your post, that you know are good, for example #macro_mood if you are posting a macro photo, and the website will fill in more good hashtags for you automatically. Good to know: Instagram has a maximum limit of 30 hashtags per post that it will look at and catalogue it by.
Gear that excites me right now
Samyang will start shipping their Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 lens for Sony FE in July. This excites me a lot, as the Sony FE system has been missing a compact f/1.8-f/2 lens in the range around 35-40 mm. I love that Samyang has identified this gap, and created a compact but fast 45mm lens.
45mm is perfect as an all round focal length, as you can get portraits and closeups with beautiful bokeh, but still it is wide enough to capture larger scenes. The lens is compact and cheap (around $400), and it looks like it performs well for its price tag and size – I will buy it as soon as it comes out, and I think it will be a bestseller.
Published videos
- My Top 5 Lightroom Editing Tips for Macro and Portraits
- Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro Lens Review with Sample Photos
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