STEADY, COWBOY #007

🗞️WELCOME TO ISSUE NO. 7

Welcome back to “STEADY, COWBOY”, a newsletter I use to document the work I’m doing as a photographer & creative entrepreneur to become world class at the craft and build a profitable business along the way, so that you might accelerate your own journey upward. I’m:

• Obsessed with fulfilling my potential as a photographer.

• Sharing what I’ve learned, so that you can get where you’re going quicker.

• Super psyched you’re here. Let’s go.

🛰️CAPTAIN’S LOG

I wanna share something that really landed for me in James Clear’s excellent newsletter:

For any of you who make creative work, whether you’re a photographer or any other creative discipline, it can be scary putting the finished product out there. I have bad news and good news:

The bad news is that (in my experience) it stays scary, you don’t just wake up one day and you’re bulletproof and nothing can touch you.

The good news? Consider this email proof: At the time of writing, I have a 100% success rate of not dying as a result of hitting “post”, no matter how nerve-wracking it may have been. The more you put your work out there, the more evidence you get that you can do it again. I know that anxiety of having something you think you want to show people, but leaving it in drafts for days, weeks, months, years. If you’re looking for a sign, take this as the sign: let it fly.

Shorter issue today, we’re going to look at something I’m not good at (bounce flash) and take another look at the “NO GATEKEEPING” approach I’m trying to bring to stills. Also, another new free mood board down below, and I’ve added the ability to set up a paid consulting call w/ me if you think it’d be helpful for you.

🔬EXPERIMENTS & LEARNINGS THIS WEEK

1/ 🎬STILLS - Learning how to bounce flash off the ceiling: First, here’s what we’re studying from photographer Geoff Peck - he recently shot this, and it caught my eye:

I got a chance to catch up with him this week, and asked him how he shot it, here’s the basics: “For the overhead shots…Godox AD200 w/ standard reflector, pointed strait up at the white ceiling tiles. About 4’ from the subject.” Whoa.

This flipped a switch in my brain: I know bounce lighting is frequently used in a ton by a bajillion great photographers, why is it that I don’t even try it? I lean so heavily toward direct flash, but look at how soft the lighting is, while still doing a nice job of separating Michelle from her surroundings?

It’s so easy to get stuck in our ways: Creative people, maybe this is an indicator for us - it’s very easy to stop adding to our toolbelt, just do the stuff we know works. This week was a good reminder that I gotta keep adding to my repertoire, raising my game, learning new moves. For 2025, this is going on the “to learn” list. Would love to hear any tips from from photographers who use this approach often, I’ve got a lot to learn. Just reply to this email and I’ll see it.

Here’s the full post if you wanna check his work out. Nice work, Geoff.

2/ 📸PHOTO - An update on the “NO GATEKEEPING” stills approach:

More on this in last week’s issue if you want to get some background context.

The early read is exactly like I called last week: I am seeing 2-3X the amount of “saves” that a normal carousel would do, which indicates to me that people might be saving it to come back to later, which might mean it could be helping people.

It’s not guaranteed traction, though. Similar to how some Reels concepts just worked better than others, these have got to have something practical on that last page to be useful.

🎞️STILLS

One post this week, lots more in the hopper to come this week - let’s break it down.

1. 📸 Some street portraits w/ Elke

   • Why I like it: Anytime you get to shoot in a location as legendary as Venice Beach, it’s fun. And, it was great to get to shoot with Elke again, she holds the unique title of being the only person I’ve shot with on two separate continents (we first worked together in Sydney).

   • Gear used: Sony A7IV, Sigma F2.8 24-70, Tiffen Black Pro Mist ¼ strength

   • What I learned: Let’s look at that third frame, it’s below for convenience: I want to show you something I could’ve done better. See this foot traffic behind Elke? This block is often packed during the day. If I was smart, we’d have waited for the moment where we had double or triple the people passing by. I think this is something great NYC street photographers do so well, they capitalize on the sheer number of people to add a ton of life to backdrops. Brilliant example below from Aaron Bunge.

🎬VIDEOS

First video after about a week off: Just a quick hitter on a few speedlite options for different price ranges: IG | TT

garrettking.co

View more on Instagram

📈AUDIENCE GROWTH

Instagram: 8773, +246 this week, +3% vs. last week
TikTok: 909 followers, +7 this week, +1% vs. last week
Newsletter: 870 subscribers, +25 this week, +3% vs. last week

🙋GOT A QUESTION?

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.

💬COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Thx to Hunter for the kind words. It’s fun to see stuff like this.

💬LINKS

📍Free mood board of the week: LINK
🆓Five free Lightroom presets: LINK
🛠️All the cameras + flashes I use: LINK
🤝1:1 consult calls: LINK

🔗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 start to your week,

Garrett