STEADY, COWBOY #009

🗞️WELCOME TO ISSUE NO. 9

Welcome back to “STEADY, COWBOY”, where I do three things:

1. Document the effort I’m putting in to become a world class photographer & creative entrepreneur

2. Track the progress I’m making, where my head is at, and what I’m testing to raise my own game

3. Share as much value as I can, so that I can be useful to you in your own creative mission, whatever that may be

I’m super psyched you’re here. Let’s go.

🛰️CAPTAIN’S LOG

Welcome, if you’re in the US, hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving. Some things I’m thinking about:

I’m psyched up for a mission: I’m gearing up for a big week in early December. I’m gonna be in Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo, and then heading straight to Los Angeles to shoot a pretty cool project for a clothing brand. I love having something on the horizon that I gotta work towards.

Running: Today, I ran a half marathon. Here were my goals:

• Good: Finish under two hours (about 9min/mile)

• Better: Finish under 1:55 (about 8:50/mile)

• Best: Finish under 1:50 (about 8:30/mile)

Here’s how I finished:

I was floored by this result - wasn’t in the best shape, hadn’t trained to the level I’d like, and figured I’d just see what happens. Total surprise to get it done this quickly, eight minutes a mile is a nice clip for me, I’m 36. And it was a nice reminder: there is something special about racing, it had been since 2017 since I’d done it. Felt good to get back in the saddle for a day.

🔬EXPERIMENTS & LEARNINGS THIS WEEK

1/ 🎬VIDEO: “How I ______” style videos: I think I see a seam in the defense to capitalize on. I have no idea if it’s going to play out. But I’m about to try it. Here’s what I think I see: I want to make a change to my hooks and my video titles. I want to see what happens if I recalibrate towards “how I did X” instead of “lighting tutorial”. The reason I feel this way is, my “how I got my first print magazine” video did decently well. I’m wondering if there’s something there. Let’s see how it goes.

2/ 📸PHOTO - An update on the “NO GATEKEEPING” stills approach: Alright, I’m calling it: I have no idea if it’s creating more traction or any sort of algorithmic engagement whatsoever. And I don’t care. I might change my mind someday, I reserve that right. But right now, I want this to be a part of how I show up to the world. What I like about it is it makes me feel like I’m drawing a line in the sand every time, on one side of the line is holding back stuff that could help people, on the other side is sharing it willingly. I have no idea if it’s useful, but if each time it helps one person out there get 1% better, then that’s pretty cool to me.

3/ ⚙️MERCH: You know the “melting smiley cowboy” logo I use on an ongoing basis? I’m geeking out because I ordered little enamel pins of it and they just showed up. Here’s a photo:

Some key learnings from this first production run:

• If you want to get pins made, I used a production company was called Jin Sheu, they’re based in Taiwan and they produce in China. I found them to be lovely to work with. Super professional and communicative.

• Pricing is very sloped, i.e. the jump in cost from 100 to 200 pieces is so nominal because your cost per piece drops a ton the more you buy.

• If and when I make a second production run, here’s the changes I’ll make:

  • I may produce slightly larger (these are a half inch tall)

  • That would unlock the ability to go with a gold perimeter like you’d normally expect from a pin like this (I couldn’t have a black border and it be on gold metal due to size)

  • I may switch from butterfly back to a little rubber back, would trade a little sturdiness for being a little more comfortable on t-shirts, etc.

4/ 📸PHOTO - A separate rodeo account: I repurposed an old account to make it exclusively for rodeo work. Here it is in case you wanna check it out.

🎞️STILLS

Let’s break down the work I put up this week, just one post:

📸 Olivia in Studio [Spring ‘24]

Let’s break this down: Similar to the photos I put up with Craig recently, this lighting setup is good news/bad news: The good news is it’s simple (a white cyclorama studio w/ two continuous lights mounted directly on the ceiling). The bad news is, depending on where you live, there may not be a ton of those. My recommendation here is, if you like studio work or you’re curious about It, test a few in your area. And don’t underestimate the power of how much light can bounce off a uniform, curved white wall. It can be pretty cool.

Also, on the red photos: that first shot, where you see the really contrasty, dramatic lighting? I was so confident in studio that day that that particular lighting approach wasn’t it. It just isn’t gonna look good. And I got them into the computer, and was floored - I like these even better than the lighting setup (just leaning on the overhead lights). I think they’re one of the closest I’ve ever gotten to Sam Dameshek’s soft flash lighting. The lesson: What looks good in the tiny screen on the camera can be deceiving at times - shoot both.

What my camera settings probably were:

• Estimated aperture: F/2.8

• Estimated shutter speed: 1/640

• Estimated ISO: 400

• Lighting intel:

  • For the white background: Those overhead lights I mentioned, that’s it.

  • For the red background: Single soft box, to my left, with a strobe. White cover on the soft box, no grid, and I’d be lying if I said I remembered the flash power. Shutter speed probably 1/200, aperture likely around F/8 to F/11.

🎬VIDEOS

Okay, on to this week’s videos:

11/26: How to make your own GIF’s (easily) IG | TT
11/27: How I got my first print magazine IG | TT 
11/29: Steal this flash technique from fashion magazines IG | TT
11/30: Compliment Attack - one of my fav projects in 2024 IG | TT

Best of the bunch: Gotta watch that video from 11/30. That project Trevor Paulhus shot is next level.

📈AUDIENCE GROWTH

Instagram: 9149 followers, +98 vs. last post, +1% vs. last week
TikTok: 1023 followers, +61 vs. last post, +6% vs. last week
Newsletter: 926 subscribers, +14 vs. last week, +2% vs. last week

About to hit the one month mark after completing the 100 day challenge. I was super curious, what happens when you go from a dead sprint for three straight months, and then slow down to about 2-3 videos a week? Here’s what I see:

• I’m not seeing a meaningfully better, or worse, hit rate on my videos. Some hits, some misses, nothing out of the ordinary.

• Follower growth has certainly slowed. A slow day for me was +25, a good day was +50. Now, I’m averaging maybe +10.

• I have had a couple videos recently that did really well with people who follow me but, for whatever reason, never quite got much traction with anyone else. I have no clue why it happened, but I’m just going to chalk it up as “video wasn’t good enough” rather than any algorithmic bogeymen. Gotta control what I can control.

My thoughts on video as I get into 2025:

• This break has been much needed.

• I don’t know if I’m going back to 7 videos a week anytime soon unless I can figure out the right way to make videos that are still cool or useful at a higher quantity without wasting anyone’s time.

• Ultimately, I’ve got about 125 reels that I made this year. That’s a nice base of content. I am glad it’s there. But I don’t plan to quit. I personally think it’s only the beginning.

🙋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

Made me laugh. Between this, and once getting called “The CEO of Flash”, I certainly am making a niche for myself.

💬LINKS

📍Free mood board #04, theater editorial: 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