WELCOME TO ISSUE NO. 2

“Steady, Cowboy” (name might change) is a weekly letter about what I’m testing and learning as a photographer and creator. I’ve been on a mission for the last eight years to become the best possible photographer and creative entrepreneur I can be. This is my attempt to share that with you so you might accelerate your own journey.

EXPERIMENTS & LEARNINGS THIS WEEK

1. 🎞️ STILLS - A useful app: This is not a new learning but I want to share because I find it crazy useful: The iPhone app I use to get these seamless Instagram layouts is called SCRL. You can see it below in the editorial I shot with Mary - that horizontal image that sits on two carousel frames? That’s SCRL. Enjoy.

2. 🎬VIDEO - Captain’s Log/Yap Session: Tried to do a 90-second (Reels limit) yap session about what I’m noticing 70ish days into this 100 day video challenge, you can see it here. Here’s my take:

   1. This got nearly zero traction.

   2. And I don’t know how much I care right now. I sense an opportunity to continue to communicate my thought process, my feelings, what it’s like being a person that’s trying this. After I hit 100 days and take a break for a bit, I foresee more content about what it’s like to be on the journey upward. Won’t be the last time I use this narrative device, if only because I get to use the Star Trek music.

3. 🎞️ STILLS - Dramatic lighting w/ a strobe: Below, you’ll see an Instagram post with a model in a purple dress on a playground slide. This is the finished product from me trialing a new approach to flash: It’s not new for me to pull the flash away from the camera by about 2-3 feet, but this is an example of what it looks like when I really stretch it. For context, this was a Godox AD200 Pro with no softbox, no modifier at all, held at about eye level approximately 6-8 feet off to my left. It’s shot at sunset, with a narrow aperture (no wider than F/11), and a shutter speed about 1/200. What I learned here is that you can add drama to a scene by doing this but you have to be careful, because you’re stretching that traditional “Rembrandt lighting” past the point of normal. I will be using this again.

🎞️STILLS

Put two sets of stills up this week, will be working to get back in a rhythm and do more next week:

1. 🌵Some portraits in the desert with Mary Williamson & an 80’s benz

2. 📸Some high-flash portraits I shot for designer Laura Citron in Nashville

Want to see future issues?

💭SOMETHING ON MY MIND

I have a tendency to over-consume media. Podcasts, social feeds, new shows, sports talk radio, newspapers, my X feed, you name it, I’m beaming it into my brain at nearly every waking hour of the day.

I think I need to slow this onslaught down a bit. Saw a thoughtful idea on how to do this today, link here if you want to learn more about it. The synopsis:

1. Hide your social feeds and news apps on your phone so they’re harder to reach.

2. Make it easier to create instead. Put tools like Pinterest, Cosmos, front and center. Make a mood board. Do some visual research.

3. Make it easier to read something useful instead. Get the Substack app and find some writers that are doing something that helps you grow. Start with Casey Lewis and go from there.

🎬VIDEOS

10/5: One lens to rule them all IG / TT
10/4: Captain’s Log, Day 73 IG / TT
10/3: Posing tutorial: Part 8 IG / TT
10/2: Posing tutorial: Part 7 IG / N/A
10/1: Enjoying the wins IG / TT
9/30: Studio background tutorial IG / TT
9/29: PSA: Shoot it while you can IG / TT

If you only watch one, check out the studio background tutorial. That one is less than 30 seconds and should give you a useful idea or two.

100 day challenge progress: Also, I’m at day 73 in a row of posting a video. October 31st, if the universe lets me make it that far, is gonna be day 100. Giddy up.

📈AUDIENCE GROWTH

Instagram: 6902, +447 followers this week, +7% vs. last week
TikTok: 751, +42 followers this week, +6% vs. last week
Newsletter: 497 subscribers, +76 this week, +18% vs. last week

🙋GOT A QUESTION?

New section this week: Have a question about cameras, lighting, editing, workflows, whatever? Ask me here - your question may get featured and answered in depth in next week’s newsletter.

💻FREE PRESETS

If you edit in Lightroom, here’s a link to five free presets, no strings attached.

🔗SHARE

If you saw something you like or found interesting in today’s post - will you do me a solid and forward it to a friend or creator you think might like it?

Everybody have a great rest of your weekend,

Garrett