Steven’s Notebook

from Robert’s concert, Friday night…
here’s the whole photo set.
The show was a great success, from several perspectives. It not only raised the funds needed, it brought together a whole bunch of folks for a night of good music and worship. Good times indeed.

Come enjoy a night of Contemporary Christian Rock!
Vision is a collection of local Christian musicians who are coming together for a good cause. The show starts at 7:30 and includes performances by Taylor Martin, James Vore, and The Mission, and guest speaker Marvin Fullilove. Vision is family friendly and all are invited. Bring friends!
Although [...]

Harris Road is usually busy in the morning and evening hours, a shortcut between Rucker Road to the west corners of Alpharetta and Highway 9. This week things are going to be even messier, as this morning the road resurfacing crew came in to start work.
The road wasn’t in horrible condition, but it was bad [...]

Last Year, the 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses of Sydney, Australia turned off their lights for an hour — for some just a symbolic gesture perhaps, but it’s estimated that the measurable result was a 10.2% energy reduction across the city.
This year there are 24 cities world-wide participating in Earth Hour. Here in Atlanta, [...]

More photos available on the flickr site.

Yards became mudslides, roads became rivers during yesterday’s thunderstorms in the Atlanta area.

Unfortunately, the rain that we have been getting is still nowhere near enough to fill the lakes.

We’ve still got a few tickets left for the High School Band Fundraiser – only $10/ticket and you could win a motorcycle or other goods worth $9,000 from Atlanta Motor World.

Here’s something interesting about the State of Georgia that — despite the fact that I’ve lived here for fifteen years — I just learned today.
Rather than specifying a party (or Independent) when registering to vote, and thus only being able to vote in that party’s primary, Georgia residents just register as voters. No [...]

Let’s head back to the lake one more time. When I last posted, I left you on the shore at Mary Alice Park, with a Harley rider gazing across Lake Lanier. I left the park ahead of him, but he passed me a short bit later as I’d stopped by the side of the road [...]

Here in the southeastern corner of the U.S., we’ve had beautiful weather for the past year or so. Beautiful for people who enjoy doing things outdoors — from sports and camping to picnics and walking the dog. Sunshine and little-to-no precipitation.
The downside to all that sunshine and lack of precipitation is… the lack of [...]

As much as I enjoy High School football games, and moreso the Marching Band performances, the real fun is watching the kids getting goofy in the stands.

Alpharetta’s Scarecrow Harvest was capped off this morning with a festive family celebration, including face painting, rides in a horse-drawn carriage, goods from local farmers & artisans, and live music provided by High Cotton.
There are a few more pictures over on the flickr site.

At noon, the mayor and city council members took over the stage [...]

Each year Alpharetta invites classes in local schools to create scarecrows to decorate Main Street, the Scarecrow Harvest. This is the entry from Hilary’s first grade class at King’s Ridge.

He’s a mixture of the Cowardly Lion (head), Scarecrow (torso and arms) and Tin Man (legs) from the L. Frank Baum’s classic story, The Wizard [...]

It’s football — and Marching Band — season once again, which means my Friday nights are pretty booked… hanging out in the stands with the kids, then roaming the sidelines, all workin’ to capture the moments of youth. It’s a lot of fun for me.
This past Friday’s game at Milton started in the rain, so [...]

Of course I knew what day today was, but the emotion didn’t really hit me until I stopped by the school.

One of the Milton High School’s young ladies, as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project, ‘planted’ 3000 flags and worked to have kids in the school write letters to soldiers expressing their feelings [...]

My wife and I awoke with a start at about 3 this morning, and my son immediately came running down the hall asking if we’d heard a noise. We most certainly had, though I wasn’t sure if it was just part of a dream until he asked. This was no dream. We checked around and [...]

Not that you shouldn’t all the time anyway, but it’s time to keep an extra eye out for the kids as you head off to work in the morning and return in the afternoons. School’s beginning, at least here in Georgia – some counties started last week, Fulton county’s kids went back to class yesterday [...]

Old Soldiers’ Day Parade, Alpharetta GA Saturday 4-August-2007

Congratulations to Wills Park (Alpharetta GA) league’s Red Sox, who finished up another great season last night. It was a double-header night, with both games against a very strong White Sox team. The Red Sox’s record was such that a single win would take the championship, while the White Sox could take the trophy [...]

Local news is good, be it delivered from community members’ blogs or in hardcopy on the driveway. In this week’s edition of the local newspaper, The Alpharetta-Roswell REVUE & NEWS, the publisher wrote an opinion piece entitled “Why newspapers still matter to you.” And yes they do matter, even to a ‘net-centric person like me. [...]

The Milton Wind Ensemble was selected by taped audition to be one of three featured ensembles at the 57th Annual University of Georgia High School Music Festival. The festival, known as “JanFest”, attracts nearly 1,000 high school band members and their directors to Athens each year to participate in Honor Bands featuring guest conductors [...]

If you’re an Inside Lacrosse subscriber, or if you see the current issue on a newstand, check out page 54. James, a Milton graduate and freshman at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, has his first published article there – based on an interview with the Athletic Director at Rollins College about thier new [...]

Last spring, when gas prices were shooting skyward, everyone was writing posts, expressing their shock and disgust, and showing pictures of their local stations’ prices.
Well, here we are today with the lowest prices in just over a year. According to AtlantaGasPrices.com, the last time we saw prices this low was the week of December [...]

It’s not quite that cold here in the Atlanta area yet, but it’s supposed to be later this week.
Perhaps it’s a good time to find yourself a copy of The Discovery Channel’s feature from last summer, Global Warming, What You Need to Know with Tom Brokaw. (there are other ways to watch it, not [...]

Good news for Atlanta-area audio book lovers: the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System has announced the upcoming availability of downloadable audiobooks.
Bad news though: the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System has chosen a system that ignores the huge percentage of portable audio device owners, as it requires “any desktop or portable device supporting Windows Media Player version 9.0 [...]

Last night’s concert was a lot of fun, especially as the Wind Ensemble ended their portion with a fun rendition of Sleighride, complete with a quick addition to their normal black dresses and tuxes:

There were plenty of other pieces played, very beautiful music. I just really dug the hats.

Every few weeks the local school system has a “Learning Matters” day.
I guess I don’t think that “learning matters” means the same thing that the school systems do, since the way they show that “learning matters” is to send the students home early.
Huh?

High School Football season’s started, and I’m back on the sidelines behind the cameras. Here are two shots that made this week’s paper.
“Junior running back Lance M. (3) runs for some of the 159 yards on 26 carries he racked up for Milton High School. Martin also scored two touchdown in the 19-0 whitewashing of [...]

It’s football season again here in the Atlanta area, which means Marching Bands are busy on Friday evenings.

Here’s the Milton drumline warming up in front of the school before tonight’s game.

This weekend the City of Alpharetta and the American Legion Post 201 held the 54th Annual Old Soldiers Day Parade. The parade is just one way that our country’s war veterans are recognized for the service. It was a beautiful day and I got some really good pictures of people.

More pictures.

Summer break’s over for these guys and gals, who are already working hard preparing for the fall season of halftime shows and competitions. Practice started for the drumline and color guard last week, with sessions from 9am through 9pm. The full band arrived this week, and they all have practice right up until the first [...]

I’m disappointed in the Alpharetta city services today, specifically the garbage collection done by BFI, now owned by Allied Waste Industries. The photos here are what’s left on our street after the collectors came through.

The blue box and white styrofoam are from the new ceiling fan, freshly installed yesterday. I can understand them perhaps [...]

In many parts of the country, June is “Dads and Grads” time, but here in the Atlanta area High School Graduation is a bit earlier.

This is the final week of school, with finals today through friday. For many of the seniors who already completed all their work, yesterday’s Senior Breakfast was the last time [...]

Six weeks after the storm hit, the damage is still apparent.
Here’s one area backyard, viewed from the parking lot of our church. On the left you can see what’s remaining of a light pole.

Before the damage, you couldn’t see the house through the trees at all from this parking lot. And obviously the home [...]

The annual High School ritual: Pretty gals and handsome guys. Fancy dresses, Tuxes and tails. Dinner and dancing. And pictures. Lots of pictures.

More pictures on my MiltonSports Photo site, of course.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted any sports photos, and my son’s baseball team has been doing well this week, so it’s time once again. These are from Tuesday evening’s game. As usual, you can click on any image to see a larger version.

Here’s my son sliding into third base, right before scoring [...]

This brand-new car was left in the parking lot of a local church while it’s owner’s on a mission trip.

Unfortunately for the owner that was this past weekend, when the storm hit. Ouch.

We’re back, and I’ll be posting stories and pictures of our trip over the next few days, but what a sight we returned to. Along with AL and TN, the Atlanta GA area got hit by a powerful set of storms and a few tornados as well. The building — or what’s left of it [...]

I added two more sports to my photography repertoire this weekend at Wills Park

Baseball’s a sport I know, though I’m working on finding the “sweet spots” from which to photograph the action. I’m pretty much clueless about Equestrian sports though – I just know to stay out of the way of the horses

The snow started at about 9:35. At 9:45 I went out and got a few images.

Before the clock struck 10 it had turned to rain and all the snow was gone.

Yesterday I posted sunrise light.
Here’s the sunset light.

As the nation pauses today to remember the attack on Perl Harbor, let’s also take some time to think of our currently-serving troops. It really doesn’t matter if you agree with President Bush’s policy or not, the fact is that the guys and gals are there – thousands of miles from home – while most [...]

High School football games here are on Friday nights, but the local paper doesn’t come out until the following Thursday. You’d think that gives me plenty of time to get my pictures ready, but not really. They want to put the paper to bed by Monday afternoon in order to send it to the printers, [...]