A short clip showing to top part of the new water tower being raised up. I have to admit I had no idea what was inside those.
Sartell development
Plenty of new construction coming along Pine Cone Road in Sartell.
A brief clip here of the new Centracare facility.
Summertime by George
The Wednesday evening concert series kicked off tonight to a crowd of 14,000. Great music weather and food.
MPR News
An interesting story on Minnesota Public Radio News this morning about one of the consequences of the VW recall. Looking forward to working with MPR again soon!
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/06/13/volkswagen-recall-brainerd-recycling
Sunrise over St. Cloud
Leading lines are a common theme in art. By using a drone I can often see lines and shapes in the landscape that otherwise would be invisible from the ground.
New water tower
It has been fun to watch the progression of this on my daily commute. Pretty soon the section that is now on the ground will be lifted up to the top.
Sauk Rapids Rotary
I had the pleasure of giving a 20 min presentation on drones and drone use to the Sauk Rapids Rotary last week.
After the meeting we stepped outside for a quick demo.
Mock crash at the New London - Spicer High School
Fire trucks, state patrol, local police and even the Life Link III helicopter today participated in a mock car crash for the students of the New London - Spicer High School.
Speakiing with the emergency personnel they felt that especially around the time of prom and graduation it was so important for high schoolers to see the potential consequences of bad decisions.
It was quite impressive.
Construction Update
I've been working with Reker Construction and Falcon National Bank documenting the construction of this apartment complex.
Just a year ago it was a snow covered field.
Solar farms
I recently spent a week doing thermal (IR) scans of solar fields looking for faulty panels and connections.
At the end of the week though it was time to pull out the regular camera and get an overview photo. I especially liked the tree that was left at the edge of this field.
Inspections
A big part of my business is inspections. Whether visual with a regular camera or thermal with the IR camera, a drone can often get to places that people cannot.
Today's example comes from a drainage ditch. While not quite Cirque d'Soleil in excitement factor, flying this ditch for inspection is worlds faster and more efficient that having a team of people walk each side. And my drone doesn't get stuck in the mud out in the middle of the field.
Other inspections I've done include concrete 150' above ground, windows to check for the seal integrity between the double panes, roofs to look for storm damage and thermal inspections of electrical equipment to look for signs of inefficiency or failure.
Local Business
Copart Inc. in Avon needed a quick overview of their property. Not a marketing photo, but more of a snapshot of exactly how it looked today.
With a drone I was able to quickly capture views from several angles, a top down survey and a few fly-over videos. Exactly what they needed.
As well as the flying, one of the parts of this job that I really enjoy is the chance to learn about different companies and industries. I have a new appreciation for what happens to cars after they are declared "totaled" by an insurance agency.
500 acre property
A client recently needed an aerial photo of a 500 acre property. He wanted it to look like Google Maps, but be current, and also to be printable at 48" x 48".
While drones are almost always a better solution for aerial photography, here a high-res camera and a Cessna provided a more economical solution.
Using a 35mm lens to avoid distortion we climbed up to about 11,000 feet with a 42mp camera to capture this photo.
Sauk Rapids Road Construction
A view of some of the recent construction connecting Hwy 10 and downtown Sauk Rapids.
Such an amazing turnaround from just a year ago.
Bridge Construction on Hwy 24
A few short clips showing some of the beams being installed on the new bridge over the Mississippi near Clearwater, MN.
Sartell Water Treatment Plant
Beautiful sunrise light this morning, but unfortunately I was caught driving between here and there.
The subject at hand was the Sartell Waste Water Treatment building on County Rd 4. Played around with some animations and tracking software to put this together.
Clearwater / Hwy 24 Bridge Progress
A few clips showing the progress of the new bridge over the Mississippi on Highway 24 near Clearwater, MN.
These are taken looking north, so you can see the pylons are done all across the river and they have just started laying down the beams that are the start of the road surface on one section.
This is a narrow two lane bridge - I always want to see how construction is going, but can't take my eyes off the road to look. I thought others out there might appreciate the view as well.
Granite City Pond Hockey Championships
A few night time clips of the hockey tournament on Lake George in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Thermal Camera Inspections
Although one might initially confuse this for a bad Instagram filter, it is a thermal image of a solar farm taken with a drone.
You can see the silo and buildings of another farm in the distance, but more importantly one can see a small section of panels on the right that are a different temperature.
Fixing these will save at least a few thousand dollars a year, and with the camera on a drone it took minutes instead of days to spot.
Roofing leaks, window leaks, bad insulation - having this type of camera on a drone is going to be great for inspections.
Fireworks at Powder Ridge Ski Area
After an evening of skiing the torchlight parade and fireworks finish off the year at Powder Ridge Ski area just south of St. Cloud, MN.
