Steph Stevens Photo

My family history and current events feel like they’re colliding this week and I thought I’d share.

My husband and I collected thousands of slides from my parents’ basement recently and we’ve been scanning them over the past week. Family gatherings in the 60s, my Dad going to prom, then on a mission trip to Africa in ‘65, marching with Martin Luther King Jr and James Meredith in the South in ‘66, going to Vietnam as a medic ‘67-‘69. I found slides from 1969 labeled “Anti-Vietnam Protest Springfield College” from when he came back home.

What a decade the 60s were. What a history filled decade to live through, such difficult times. What a time to live in our current one.

Most of these photos my Dad took on the ‘66 March… which research tells me must have been the “March Against Fear”, Memphis to Jackson Mississippi. The third and fourth photos I took September 2025

1. is a line of cops with guns
2. is of MLK Jr giving a speech
3. is of my Dad, Mom, Andy & Eddie the day before my Dad passed away. Behind him just happens to be a family heirloom (that exact slide hasn’t popped up yet) it’s MLK Jr walking pretty close to where my Dad took the photo.

The rest of the photos are in a random order of the March. Not pictured was a time a tent they were in was tear gassed. I remember him telling me that story.

Jump to present day: the thought of citizens peacefully assembling, marching, demonstrating in response to authorities that are not on the right side of things felt so appropriate to share to today. I’m so glad that we’re digging into this family history (also for my boys to really see our family connection to the past) Bittersweet this feels a few months too late, but here we are moving forward with what we have.

🕊️✌️peace & love to you all

Happy 11th Birthday A&E!!

Yesterday Andy got to plan the day: we went to Battleship Cove, Ichigo Ichie, An Unlikely Story and we watched Valkyrie.

Next week Eddie will plan a day which will probably include less ammunition.

2025 editing is wrapped and now I’m diving into a huge portfolio edit to start 2026. So I’m walking down memory lane so hard tonight. Trying very hard to select images that I’d shoot 1000 times over and over again. Images from the past that are where I want to go. I’m going to try hard to pick one from this series, but I love them all. Thinking of Margaret & Matt dancing in the moonlight 💗💗

I was photographing an all day speaking event yesterday. Toward the end of the day I stepped out of the room briefly and saw these birds flying between buildings. Over and over, fluttering together in a wave. I stopped for just a moment and grabbed some photos.

I thought about how I ask myself these two questions all the time:

Do I have enough of this moment?

Do I need more? Need to be patient? Need to ask for my subject to do something different?

Besides the technical aspect of photography I think this is what defines us. How do we use our time? How do we decide when it’s good or can it be better in just a moment, push for more, be greedy with what it could be.

I’ll spend a lifetime thinking this over 🤔