Published June 29, 2016
Lamorinda Weekly Photographer Retires With Honors
From left, Lamorinda Weekly editor Peggy Spear gives Ohlen Alexander his CNPA First Place plaque.
Ohlen Alexander started his newspaper career at age 13 as a paperboy for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. He is ending it as an award-winning photographer for the Lamorinda Weekly.

Alexander was recently awarded First Place in the California Newspaper Publishers' Association's Better Newspapers Contest for a photo he took at the 2015 Earth Day celebration at the Wagner Ranch Nature Area. (See the award-winning photo at right.)

"These days, with every smart phone containing a camera able to take high resolution photos, some people might consider themselves to be photographers, but they would be wrong," says former Lamorinda Weekly Editor Jennifer Wake. Few can pull off the artistry of a photograph like Ohlen Alexander."

The photographer, who has lived in Orinda for 30 years with his wife, Juanita, says he enjoys taking portraits of people even though "It's hard to capture the spirit of a person in a photo."

But in his years with this newspaper, he captured not only the spirit of the community - whether it was people or owls - but he did it with enthusiasm and professionalism.

Between his time in photography he has worked as a professor at the California State University Maritime Academy teaching primarily math and physics. He said he would be spending his newfound free time studying Italian at the Orinda Community Center. - P. Spear



The award winning photo was on our front page on April 22, 2015

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