We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan Stezka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.

Alright, Megan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Publishing a cookbook! This specific project unexpectedly got me into becoming a full-time freelancer and business owner a year and a half ago. Currently, I’d say 75% of my business is working with local restaurants. And this summer, I found out there was an article naming me as one of the top food photographers in Minneapolis! When I found it, I was like, WOW… no way, I can’t believe this!

The history behind “Minnesota Roots”.

Before covid, I was doing portrait photography part-time. Then covid hit, and I suddenly didn’t have people to work with anymore. I was talking to my mother a lot more during the shutdowns. We thought it would be a cute and meaningful idea to gift my grandparents a cookbook of all our favorite recipes from the family! She would curate (and narrate) the recipes, while I would take photos!

I saw this as a learning opportunity to work on food photography. I had very little experience in this area of expertise, while portraits were my bread and butter. But during this time, the world was minimizing all human contact.

It took about a year to finish shooting the recipes. And yes, I made every single recipe in the cookbook (a little less than 100 recipes). My mom and I kept the project a surprise for the grandparents. But I was posting teaser pictures on social media to show my progress and keep folks in the loop with my work, And we had quite a few friends and family who were like “I want to buy one when its done!”.

Back in college, I learned a little bit about layout design and publishing. So initially, I took on this roll when we got to that step. Unfortunately, I bit off way more than I could chew for this. It took longer than expected to revise and perfect the small details to make it all look cohesive.

The first copy ended up looking fine, but not bookshelf worthy in my opinion. And finding a printer was even harder. I tried amazon publishing, but the photo quality turned out awful. I reached out to a few other printing companies, and hit a wall. The cost estimate compared to the minimum amount of copies required, made the book not feasible to sell to a few friends and family members anymore.

After a taking a break from this project, I reached out to a friend of mine from college, Samantha McDowell, who is a talented designer and owns a local indie publishing company. She not only took on this project, but offered to have The Black Hat Press professionally copy-edit it, redesign the book, and help us sell it! It seemed like the perfect solution.

And guess what? Right now the cookbook is finally live for pre-sales! Hooray!

“Minnesota Roots is the product of generations of home-grown and from-scratch Minnesotan recipes carefully curated and finessed to perfection.

If there’s one thing Minnesotans are experts at, it’s that warm and cozy feeling.

Look for recipes that comfort the heart and the belly in that unique Midwestern way like: Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls, Beer Cheese Soup, Cherry Coke Salad, Pan Fried Walleye, Blueberry Pie and of course, Hot Dish.

Bring some quintessential Minnesota style and history to your dinner table with Minnesota Roots. Share it with your own Midwest family and start some new recipe traditions! ”

You can purchase one here:

https://www.theblackhatpress.com/bookshop/p/minnesota-roots-pre-sale

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started photography in 2006. I was a media arts student at Perpich Center for Arts education and graduated in 2009. I got my degree in mass communications from Winona State University and pursued advertising and marketing as a career. Throughout those years post-college, I kept photography as a side-hustle. I even got to work for a world renown commercial photographer in a huge studio. After working agency and in-house marketing jobs and having a taste of what it looks like to be a professional photographer, I realized that I would much rather be a photographer than working for an advertising or marketing company.

I work with local restaurants, entrepreneurs, soloprenuers, and artists. My niche is food, beauty, and performing arts. My background in advertising is what makes me different than most brand photographers. I keep marketing techniques top of mind during the planning process, but on a smaller scale. This makes it a more accessible investment to newer and upcoming businesses. I also specialize in portraits for business owners, either working in-action or stylized, posed shots. Using real-life portraits instead of stock images makes their website and social media more approachable. Having a face behind a brand is crucial for many business-owners.

My ideal clientele are folks who are self-motivated. They might be in the process of freshening up their website. Perhaps they like to DIY their own marketing, but might be a little too busy to keep making content on a regular basis. My work adds that vital touch of professionalism to the advertising mix so they can focus on those other aspects of their business. It’s one less thing on their plate. And who doesn’t love having a gallery of stellar images to choose from when you need it?

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The amount of time and effort it takes into making a great photo. For me, I don’t just point-and-shoot like you can with your iPhone.

First you have the basic elements of lighting, composition, color, camera settings, and learning how to edit photos which takes a lot of education and practice.

Next, you have all the money spent on the camera body, lenses, lights, modifiers, editing software, computer, and a car to get you from A to B.

And then there is running a businesses, which is a whole different challenge. You have the time and money spent on marketing, websites, software for contracts, emails, and other miscellaneous things.

There is also insurance and other fees that non-biz owners do not see. There is people skills, learning how to pose people, preparing them for their shoot, and knowing how to execute their vision. And during the shoot, you have all the above and still need to fix things like a hair or crumb out of place while shooting in tricky lighting conditions. You won’t want to fix this in post-production, so you try notice it while posing or styling. Lastly, there is editing. Filters are so common that many might think most of us click *filter*, and it’s done. After many years of not using presets, Ive finally come up with my own process that makes my editing faster, but it still takes on average of 15 minutes per photo to tweak. So if you have a 30 image package with me, that amounts to a whole 8-hour day of editing.

And this is what makes a professional photographer stand out from hobbyists. It’s also why we charge “an arm and a leg.” We don’t get PTO or benefits, and still need to pay our bills and buy groceries at the end of the day.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Call me a people pleaser, but I sure LOVE the reactions of a job well done. The little screams of joy or genuine words of appreciation for what I did for them. It makes my day, and it keeps me going. It feels awesome to be good at something. I’m a problem-solver. So when I work with people, my goal is to provide you with what you had in mind. And my suggestions help make it all come together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stezkaphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megan.stezka/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StezkaPhoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjhuizel/

Image Credits
All photos are copyright of Megan Stezka Photography Brands featured: Bear Cave Brewing, Steele + Hops, Butchers Tale, The Sidecar at the Ta,p Eagan Arms Public House, Haus of Wax, Purposeful Pilates, Main Street Farmer Eatery, Potty Pillow, La Tapatia, Revival Music Festival, Ziel Bridal, Tamarack, Tap Advellum Vegetable Eatery, Bull & Wren, Kitchen Table, Nicos Tacos, Lu’s Sandwiches, Tori Ramen, Tono, Herbie Butcher’s Fried Chicken