Zettl Photography - St. Louis Photographer» fashion photography

I’m going to be selfish for the moment and talk about what I love to photograph… I love photographing engagement sessions. I love it when I have wonderful couples that are excited about their photos and willing to play. I love it when I can add some editorial/fashion style work into the session. I love it when we can create something that future generations will look at and say, “wow, my parents were cool.” I really do love to photograph people.

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

We’ve been busy! (And wedding season hasn’t even started!)

zettlphoto — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:56:22 +0000

It’s been a busy few months here at Zettl Photography. Every year when we have a brief break from weddings, we like to invest in our education so we can improve our photography and business skills.

In January we attended Imaging USA / PPA and the Digital Wedding Forum Convention in San Antonio. In February we attended WPPI in Vegas. We also attended After Dark Las Vegas – a very hands on learning experience that is one of the best educational programs out there. (If you’re a photographer reading this, I recommend that you check out my review of After Dark Education at Photo Lovecat. The next After Dark will be May 9-11 in Cincinnati. )

Below are a few photos I took at After Dark. It’s a fun mix of Fashion Photography, Boudoir Photography and some more Old Hollywood Portraits.

Who is Stephanie Zettl?

zettlphoto — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:57:43 +0000

I absolutely hate writing about myself. Really, I do. The idea of writing a bio scares me. Do I write in first person? Third person? Do I try to be cute? Are people even going to want to read this? Will it sound cliche?

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.”