In this book I show you how to achieve outstanding results with Nikon Speedlights – from simple one-flash bounce techniques to complex set-ups with multiple flashes and modifiers. Sequential shots are paired with descriptive text and pull-back images allow for easy understanding of the important elements to capturing lasting images. Whether you’re shooting a wedding, portraits, or a commercial assignment, you’ll excel with these comprehensive approaches.

This 160 page book is filled with helpful tips and lots of  photographs to fully demonstrate the different lighting techniques.  While this book is geared for Nikon users, it contains a lot of useful information about lighting and working with  small flash units for all photographers.

The book can be purchased at Amazon.com using this link:  Nikon Speedlight Handbook

(Autographed copies can be purchased directly from me.)

I hope you enjoy the book and find it enlightening.  If so, please feel free to add a book review on Amazon.com.  It would be much appreciated.

As I was compiling the list, I thought about how it really was a list of books that all photographers should have on their shelves.   I was going to make this a top 10 list but I decided that I would probably continue to add to it.  So let’s call this Stephanie’s  List of Favorite Photography Books. (Book Covers link directly to Amazon)  I hope they are a source of inspiration and enlightenment to you.

My most recent purchase is a book of Vivian Maier’s work. Her story is exceptional and I encourage you read her story  and view more of her work at www.vivianmaier.com  Her work rivals any of the great street photographers of the twentieth century.

Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

While we’re on the topic of street photographers, no collection would be complete without a book by Henri Cartier- Bresson.  This book was given to me by a cherished friend.  What I love about it is that it contains a lot of the well know Cartier-Bresson images but also a lot of them that I had not seen before.  It is a beautiful book.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World

Richard Avedon – If you don’t have one of his books on your shelves, you are missing out.  Here is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite artists.

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000

A lot of my fashion work is influenced by the elegance of Norman Parkinson.

Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour

I am drawn to the photos of performers and musicians, which is why I love the work of Herman Leonard. (My B&W Jazz cover of St. Louis Bride Magazine was my homage to the artist)

Jazz

No collection is complete without the quiet humour of Elliot Erwitt.  The man sees the world in ways I wish I could, always with a bit of mischievousness, always with a bit of a smile.

Personal Best

Nick Brandt is one of my favorite nature photographers.  His warm black and white images of African animals are second to none.  This book is large and properly highlights his beautiful and majestic images.

A Shadow Falls

Now on to the technical photography books…  Let’s start with books on lighting.

This list wouldn’t be complete without a self serving plug for my own book on the Nikon Speedlight System.  I’m really proud of this book.  It provides a lot of great information and is visually appealing.

Nikon Speedlight Handbook

Another great lighting book  is by the well known New Jersey Wedding and Portrait Photographer Neil van Niekerk.  His Tangents blog and books have been very influential to my work as a wedding photographer.  I highly recommend them.  You will definitely have some ah-ha moments while reading them.

Off-Camera Flash

Joe McNally ‘s work with speedlights is extraordinary.  His book falls in the same category.

The Hot Shoe Diaries

This list should give you a good start.  I’ll continue to add to the list as I find more books I believe are valuable to our education and inspiration.

Hope you enjoy them!

xoxo

Stephanie

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He’s 92 now and still keeps an office in the building he owns in Westport.  The last time I visited him I knew I wanted a to create a photo of my grandfather in his office.  There was some conversation that perhaps we should take it in the park or at his house.  But the answer was no;  I wanted it in the office.  The truth is, this photo is for me and it was made as a visual record of my childhood memories.

I had that conversation again today – that conversation that questions why I am a photographer. But this conversation was just a bit different.  I still maintain that I will always be a photographer until the day I die.  I will always have a camera in my hand.  I will always be on a quest to create something.  Whether or not it will always be my career and my means of making money is another story.  But I hope to keep it as my career for as long as possible.

And that brings up the question, why am I a photographer?  Why is this the thing that gets me excited?  Why is this the activity that I think about non-stop?  Why does it motivate me to always try to learn more and become better?

The truth of the matter is, it’s not the photographs or the act of pressing the shutter that pushes me.  It’s the people that are in the photographs.

Today, a good friend of mine shared this quote with me from  David  duChemin’s book  Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision

“Anyone can take a picture of poverty; it’s easy to focus on the dirt and hurt of the poor.  It’s much harder and much more needful – to pry under that dirt and reveal the beauty and dignity of people that, but for their birth into a place and circumstance different from our own, are just like ourselves.  I want my images to tell the story of those people and to move us beyond pity to justice and mercy.”

Poignant words to say the least.

I was immediately drawn to that quote.  While I may spend my time photographing people in very different circumstances, I’m still photographing people.  Anyone can take a photograph of a bride in a pretty wedding gown.  But there is something even more beautiful beneath that gown.  There are the hopes and dreams of “young” love.  There are the emotions of someone who is publicly making a commitment and who is sharing a special moment with dear friends and family.  I am witnessing the birth of a new family.   I have the opportunity to record it all so that future generations can have a better view of that beauty beneath the gown.  I want my photos to tell the story of the people I photograph.  I want them to say more than what they wore and who was there.  I want the photographs to say who they are and who is important to them.

With that said, I want to start sharing with you more about what I think makes good photography and what motivates me to pick up a camera.

It’s important to continue to connect with wonderful clients that are willing to trust me.  If we are a good fit, and you trust me, there is no limit to the images that we can create.  They will be more than pretty pictures.  They will tell your story.  They will be your personal legacy.

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Going to get all geeky about photography equipment for a moment… I love my new Pocket Wizard Flex system for Nikon. It gives me a great deal of flexability and reliability when working with the Nikon flash system (which in my opinion is second to none) I even had the opportunity to write about the system for Neil van Niekerk’s Tangents blog shortly after the new system was released in January. You can read my article here: Review of PocketWizard Mini TT1 and FlexTT5 for Nikon.

While attending WPPI in Las Vegas in February, I was asked by PocketWizard to demonstrate how I use their product in a portrait session. It was quite an honor to be asked since they only chose to feature and film four photographers at the time. The other photographers that they featured included Neil van Niekerk, Cliff Mautner, and Bry Cox – three photographers I highly respect. If you’re a photographer, check out all the instructional videos on the new PocketWizard Flex System for Nikon and see how other photographers are using their PocketWizard units.

Below are two of my favorite photos from Ashley and Archie’s recent portrait session.

Below are two photos from our late night Old Hollywood Shoot.  Besides talking about the lighting with video and other constant light sources, we talked about how to evaluate a location when you first walk into it.  What do you see?  How do you use it?  How do you adjust it if need be?

I love the second photo not only for the reflection, but also the figure in the background that serendipitously walked through the scene – giving it even a better sense of space.

I have a business policy I’m trying to live up to each day:  create/take/make/find a photograph and try to make at least one client really really happy.  Here is the photo from today.  More images from today’s snow storm can be seen on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/zettlphoto Be sure to like us while you’re there.

So when I was forced to write a bio, I turned to my facebook friends to bail me out.

To my pleasant surprise, David Baugher, my former editor at The Current – UMSL’s Student Newspaper, stepped up to the plate and wrote me the perfect bio.  I could not have asked for anything better (and I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in my life!!)

Unfortunately the bio had to be shortened due to space constraints, so I wanted to republish the unedited version here.  Enjoy!

“Stephanie Zettl is owner, operator and president for life of Zettl Photography Inc., a multinational conglomerate with offices in St. Louis, New York, Paris, Zurich, Cameroon and the middle of the Saraha Desert where she once spent a five-year sabbatical to contemplate the photographic aspects of sand weevils.

Born in a small mining village in the Andes, Stephanie began her historic career in imagemaking at age 2 when she accidentally tripped over a camera unintentionally snapping a photo which made the June 1980 cover of National Geographic under the lead story “The blurry cribs of South America.”

It was the first of many visual honors which came to include prizes for journalistic photography, art photography, war photography, fashion photography, still life photography and things-that-are-actually-moving photography. She is among the few photographers in the world noted for both her stunning wedding photography and her work in the less well-known field of divorce photography.

Stephanie is credited as the creator of the world’s only time machine which she invented only to go back and get tips from Ansel Adams. She is one of only five people in the world who actually understand what an f-stop is and doesn’t just pretend to when non-photographers ask.

Stephanie is fluent in 15 languages, sleeps only four hours a night and can kill at 12 paces using only a telephoto lens and the magnified rays of the sun. She was a key negotiator at the Treaty of Ghent, is exempt from all the laws of thermodynamics and has personally imposed a no-fly zone on Libya.”

For the past three years Peter and I have been hosting our Zettlmania Avatar Shoot at The Digital Wedding Forum’s annual convention.  The theme was Old Hollywood (with a bit of film noir) and we shot everything in B&W with video lights. This year we had about 50 fellow photographers participate.

We do the project for several reasons.

• Photographers don’t seem to have a lot of photos of themselves. Surprising but true.
• It ensures I get to meet a lot of cool people and harass my friends.  Seriously, I am humbled by the talented and creative people that I am able to photograph.
• Photographers need to learn that it’s a good thing to be in front of the camera once in awhile. I’m always surprised by the number of people that tell me they can’t remember the last time they were in front of the camera. In truth that makes me a bit sad. We all deserve good photos of ourselves.  I hope that these photos can become part of their collection.
• It’s fun.  I really enjoy photographing people – especially creative people.  (I would love to someday be known as a photographer’s photographer.)

Below are some of my favorite portraits.  Thank you to all that showed up and let me photograph them.

I hope you enjoy the photos.  I always like doing similar work here in St. Louis.  Please feel free to contact with any questions.

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Delaware Photographer Blonnie Brooks and Kansas City Fashion Photographer Chuck Arlund

New York Wedding Photographer Ajit Singh & Louisiana Wedding Photographer Dawn Earls

Ohio Wedding Photographer April Rentz & Photography Book Publisher David Pearce (David has published several really wonderful and informative photography books – check them out.)

Chicago Wedding Photographer Mark Amelse & Another great Louisiana Wedding Photographer Michael Caswell

Awesome Memphis Wedding Photographer Jake Morrow & Kentucky Wedding Photographer Walt Roycraft

Massachusetts Wedding Photographer Sheryl Widberg (love this photo of Sheryl!)

Miguel Clark & The gorgeous Portland Wedding Photographer Amy Prutch

And then there is this portrait of my friend, New Jersey Wedding Photographer Neil van Niekerk.  Neil gave me exactly one frame to take this photograph.  One.  As soon as I pressed the shutter he was gone.  Hey, sometimes all you need is one.  You can read his article about my lighting for Film Noir style portraits and his experience in front of the camera on his educational website www.neilvn.com/tangents.