Fort Payne Times-Journal Publisher Steven Stiefel brings to light the role newspapers still serve in communities today as the area’s storyteller and ways to stay involved in the growth and happenings in and around Fort Payne. Click this PODCAST EPISODE to listen.
My latest magazine cover, the July issue of DeKalb Living magazine, featuring Harper Starnes (granddaughter of Alabama lead singer Randy Owen), Jessi Clements (granddaughter of bassist and vocalist Teddy Gentry), and Ella Fowler (granddaughter of Greg Fowler (who co-wrote several of Alabama’s songs and toured with the band for years).
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My photo was named as News Photo of the Year by the Alabama Press Association and displayed at the summer convention in Orange Beach this weekend. I also won an award for second place for Best Humorous Column for my piece last year about nearly getting into a fight in the parking lot of Jack’s with a man who was angry that I wouldn’t let him cut line (a commentary on how everyone is so angry about every possible thing in these stressful times). Our newspaper also won several first, second and third place group awards for various categories. Story about the awards will appear in Wednesday’s edition of The Times-Journal.
It’s been a little while since I added to this blog, so today I am sharing Some of my recent photography work. I’ve been really really really busy.
Alex McPherson photographed for DeKalb Living magazine. A top rated kicker, he is headed next week to play for Auburn University, my alma mater.
A girl celebrates scoring a point during one of the games at the Race to Embrace, Fort Payne’s alternative to the Special Olympics. It returned this month for the first time since COVID-19.
Our local college, Northeast Alabama Community College, commissioned a bronze statue of their sports mascot, a Mustang and this old dog that hangs around the campus. The sculpture was unveiled a couple of weeks ago. It turned out pretty nice, don’t you agree?
Alabama lead singer Randy Owen sang some of his hit songs for second graders at Wills Valley School on May 20, 2022. His granddaughter was among them. The quality isn’t very good because the setting was a black light art show, which is pretty much the most challenging environment I could have encountered as a photographer.
The next time you feel like giving up on something you’re passionate about, think about a young filmmaker named George.
If I’ve been scarce lately, there’s a good reason. Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I just sent to press the final 14 page section for 2022 “Progress edition.”
My former managing editor left the job at the end of January, leaving it up to me as the publisher to lay out 98 extra broadsheet pages from 11 sections, 120 magazine pages and nine regular newspaper editions. I don’t know what the math totals up to — and frankly, I am too exhausted to do math right now, or ever, really — but suffice to say that I have been working about 90 hours a week just to do the editor’s job and mine as publisher. Lots of going in at 8 a.m. and heading home at about 9 p.m.-ish nearly every single day since early February. All while dealing with some silly drama manufactured by someone in my personal life and fighting a nasty hacking cough that left me feeling like my obituary might get typed up before it all ended.
But dammit, I have survived!
It’s been a pretty spectacular autumn here in North Alabama. I was worried at first because it started rather rapidly, suggesting I was starting my annual photography near the peak. I believe the peak at higher elevations occurred just shy of Halloween. In the valley, the leaves remain very bright and colorful in isolated spots. This gallery is a collection of some of my better images from this fall.
HATE is a four-letter word I reserve for things I truly despise. In recent years, Facebook has sadly joined that club.
Facebook has experienced so much negative press attention that they recently rebranded as “Meta” in the sort of old PR move that disguises something to confuse users by giving it a new name. Most recently, they’ve started running ad spots meant to create the perception that they actually welcome government regulation and value user privacy. Give me a break.
I’ve been around social media since the early days and helped launch a competitive platform on a similar timeline to Facebook. When I watch the movie “The Social Network,” it brings back fond memories of a time when young tech-savvy guys fueled by beer and testosterone didn’t even know where our efforts would lead or whether we’d ever be able to monetize it, we just knew it was cool and fun.
In hindsight, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg found ways to make an obscene amount of money exploiting the human need for connection and the information we share to do that. Our society is worse off for it because of the ethical shortcuts taken along the way.