twin cities Archives

12/09/201913/09/2024

Minnesota Wisconsin 9/11 #343run remembrance

2024 9/11 #343run Afton MN #neverforget

Stagecoach Overpass I94 Afton Minnesota

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2023 9/11 #343run Hudson WI #neverforget

Due to construction the 2023 #343run was moved from I94 near Afton Minnesota to across the river on highway 35 south of Hudson and north of River Falls Wisconsin. Attendees assembled on Monday evening 9/11/23 on the Tower and Coulee Road overpasses as the parade went south from Hudson towards River Falls before returning to the north. In addition to the various EMS, Fire, Rescue, Police, Sheriff, Highway Patrol and other first responders, an Air Force/National Guard C130 Cargo plane made two low “tactical” passes along the #343run route.

Pictures Over Stillwater Coverage of 2019 #343 9/11 Tribute

The following still and video images are from the 2019 #343 9/11 tribute event which has been held for several years. The event takes place on an overpass above Interstate 94 (I94) in eastern Minnesota (West Lakeland and Afton) near the Wisconsin (Hudson) border for 24 hours on 9/11.

This volunteer event has participants waving american flags as people head west during the morning rush hour towards twin cities Minneapolis St. Paul area along with others throughout the day. There is also a parade of first responders that starts to the east in Hudson Wisconsin crossing the St. Croix River passing under the overpass west bound then circling back over the bridge (Stagecoach road).

Mid-Afternoon view of Stagecoach Overpass looking to the north

A Black Hawk Helicopter does a fly by before the evening parade

First Responders Circle Back over I94 on Stagecoach Road

Westbound I94 Traffic entering Minnesota being Greeted

Looking East Towards Wisconsin Welcoming West Bound I94 Traffic

View of Stonebridge Overpass looking north shortly before parade

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Visit our Gallery page to view additional related content (still images and video). Visit and like (thanks in advance) our Instagram.com/PicturesOverStillwater page, as well as our Facebook.com/PicturesOverStillwater page (includes interactive 360 panoramic views).

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

When in downtown Stillwater, visit our partner Smith + Trade Mercantile where you can buy Pictures Over Stillwater aerial photography postcards among other items.

21/08/201918/10/2024

2019 River Valley Charities Golf Event Troy Burne Hudson Wisconsin

The following are various aerial photos from the August 19, 2019 River Valley Charities golf event held at Troy Burne Golf Club south of Hudson Wisconsin. Learn more about the River Valley Charities golf event at their website here and learn more about Troy Burne golf glub here.

Note the 2020 RVC Golf tournament will be held August 24, 2020 at Troy Burne, learn more and register here.

Click on above image to view more Golf related images

Images and Video from 2019 Event

https://picturesoverstillwater.com/rvc-river-valley-charities-inaugural-new-richmond-wisconsin-pro-am-golf-tournament

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

14/08/201918/10/2024

Drone Aerial Views Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities Sport Stadiums Arenas

Drone Aerial Views Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cites Sport Stadiums Arenas and Venues

Various drone aerial views around Minneapolis St Paul twin cities metro area of sport stadiums, arenas and venues, from major league to high school to ad hoc motorcycle racing on a frozen minnesota lake.

Pony Stadium Stillwater (taken during Drones for Non-Dummies class)

Allianz Field St Paul Minnesota

Allianz Field St Paul Minnesota

US Bank Stadium Spring 2019
Allianz field St Paul Minnesota

Downtown Minneapolis Skyline and US Bank Stadium

Snow Covered New Allianz Stadium

Mid Winter late afternoon sunset view downtown Minneapolis US Bank Stadium

Pony Stadium Stillwater Area Public High School

Runners line up for start of Inaugural St Croix Crossing 5K in Wisconsin
Inaugural St. Croix Crossing 5K and Half Marathon from Wisconsin to Minnesota
Motorcycle Racing on Frozen Lake Martha
Ice Motorcycle Racing Lake Martha Lindstrom MN
Pony Stadium Stillwater Area Public High School

Pictures Over Stillwater Minnesota Twin Cities Images Available For Marketing Mailings

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

When in downtown Stillwater, visit our partner Smith + Trade Mercantile where you can buy Pictures Over Stillwater aerial photography postcards among other items.

31/07/201927/03/2024

Inaugural Run Stillwater St Croix Crossing 5K Half Marathon

Various still and video images from July 27, 2019 Inaugural Run Stillwater St Croix Crossing 5K and Half Marathon. The event started at 7AM in Houlton Wisconsin with runners finishing in downtown Stillwater via new St. Croix River Crossings Bridge.

Inaugural Run Stillwater St Croix Crossing 5K Half Marathon

Click on above image to view more Run Stillwater items

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

31/07/201918/10/2024

Twin Cities Drone Aerial Sunrise Sunset Night Views

This page post is focused on twin cities drone aerial sunrise sunset night views including still photography along with videos. Most of the aerial sunrise sunset night views are from around the twin cities metro area there are a few from around Minnesota, Western Wisconsin and North Dakota.

New for 2021 northside of Stillwater Lift Bridge Lit Up

Hyperlapse time lapse downtown Stillwater Minnesota

Ice Maze From Construction Until Gone

Winter Week In Stillwater Minnesota Aerial Views
Aerial Night View Ice Maze Stillwater Zephyr Theatre

Zephyr Theatre Stillwater Minnesota Ice Palace Maze Ice Maze

Wintertime in Stillwater Minnesota Holiday Lights

Flying unmanned air systems (UAS), also known as unmanned air vehicles (UAV), aka Drones early morning and evening as well as night, has many challenges and opportunities.

The opportunities include capturing sunrise and sunsets from different vantage points in some cases when the air is calmer, clearer, and with fewer clouds. Likewise, there is less traffic (people, vehicles, and birds, or at least sometimes) than in the daytime, and, if configured properly, you can see your aircraft further. On the other hand, challenges include not seeing everything in the dark, other drones in the area that are not properly lit, or authorized to be in the airspace.

A challenge for hobby/recreational flyers who are not looking to go out and take photos and then sell them is getting night access to controlled airspace. For hobby and recreational drone operators whose intent is to go out and capture photos or videos to post and sell or promote, you should get your FAA part 107 certificate and then your daylight waiver. If you are already part 107, take the next step and get a daylight waiver so you can fly at night.

On the other hand, if you are looking to hire or have somebody do night time drone photos or videos, engage with a professional who is FAA Part 107.29 (daylight waiver), as well as MnDOT Aeronautics licensed, registered, insured and experienced. The key for nighttime, early morning, and evening drone flying is mitigating risk, being prepared, flying smart, and safe.

A couple of other tips and reminders include the night is considered the time from 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise. Maintain situational awareness of your drone’s altitude, direction, where it is, and where it is going while maintaining a visual line of sight (e.g., not staring at your phone). Another tip is to have high visibility lights that can be seen from several miles away. The lights help you see your drone and for others to see it (if they are watching). When you are going to fly at night, or even early morning or evening, get to know the area ahead of time while it is light out, where are trees, powerlines, and other obstacles.

The reason I mention the above is that having an FAA part 107.29 daylight waiver as well as being MnDOT licensed drone operator is to demystify and provide insight into night drone flying. If you want to know more about night drone operations or how to get your daylight waiver as well as airspace authorizations and related topics, get in touch with us.

Its Sale Time, Black Friday Before and Beyond

It’s here, Our Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sunday Savings, Cyber Monday, Townie Tuesday, Wednesday Wall of Savings and, Thank You Thursday sale is going on now. We have stock images from around, on the ground and above the Stillwater, St Croix River Valley, Western Wisconsin, Twin Cities and adjacent areas. Browse, Shop, Buy and enjoy savings of 30% (or more) on Prints, Mounts and Wall Art including Metal prints from Tuesday November 24 through Tuesday December 1, 2020 at our online store (here).

Above, early November fall colors downtown Stillwater Minnesota with call waters of the St Croix river reflections of old and new bridges. Below sunrise downtown St. Paul Minnesota.

Late Fall Downtown Stillwater Lights Sunset Night Flight Views

Stillwater Friday Night Lights

Downtown Stillwater Sunset Opera On The River (view more here)

Washington County Fair Ground Sunset Views

Night View Washington County Fair

Stillwater Fireworks View From Wisconsin (view more here)

Downtown Minneapolis Skyline Sunset

Downtown Stillwater February Sunset Stillwater Lights #stillwaterlights

Stillwater St Croix River Valley Fireworks

Stillwater Lights Light Up Stillwater Minnesota #homefortheholidays #wssc

Wrap Up

Visit our Gallery page to view additional related content (still images and video). Also visit and like (thanks in advance) our Instagram.com/PicturesOverStillwater page, as well as our Facebook.com/PicturesOverStillwater page (includes interactive 360 panoramic views).

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

31/07/201926/01/2024

Winter Spring Summer Fall Weather Storms

Winter Spring Summer Fall Weather Storms.

In addition to Winter Spring Summer Fall Weather Storms, check out our flood flooding page with imagery from various floods including St Croix River.

Dynamic Fall Weather St. Croix River Inversion Fog Dragon Breath

2019 Spring Flood Season

Winter Motorcycle Ice Racing

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

20/03/201918/10/2024

2019 Spring Flood Season

Visit our Flood Flooding coverage page including 2023 content.

It is 2019 Spring Flood season in the upper Midwest including Minneapolis St. Paul twin cities metro area along with western Wisconsin, eastern Dakotas and elsewhere. In the Minneapolis St. Paul twin cities metro area, there are three major rivers all of which flow into the mighty Mississippi river, not to mention numerous smaller rivers, streams, creeks as well as other runoff.

For the 2019 Spring Flood season, in the Twin Cities metro, western Wisconsin, western as well as southern Minnesota as well as eastern Dakotas, February record-setting snow fall are now melting. Besides record February snow fall, there was a lack of snow cover in the Twin Cities metro and surrounding area in early January to protect against the extreme cold, thus driving frost deeper into the ground.

With frost being four plus feet deep, snowmelt that would normally start to seep into the ground is having to run off elsewhere which results into the area lakes, ponds, creeks, streams, small rivers and ultimately the Mississippi and other large rivers.

Click Image for video – Downtown Stillwater 2019 Spring Flood Prep

NOAA Weather Service St. Croix River Stillwater Forecast

Iframes not supported
Click here to view full and updated NOAA forecast

Click here to view updated NOAA weekly probability forecast.

Click here to view updated NOAA chance of exceeding forecast

Hundreds sign up for flood prep along St. Croix River in Stillwater

Above via Twincities.com image via www.picturesoverstillwater.com

2019 Spring Flood Content

Note that we are FAA Part 107 certified (e.g. commercial drone operator) and MNDoT Aeronautics & Aviation Drone as well as Aerial Photography licensed, and insured, meaning our images as well footage can be used safely for various commercial purposes including by news or other organizations.

Pictures Over Stillwater Minnesota Twin Cities Images Available For Marketing Mailings

Wrap Up and Where to Learn More

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

14/01/201917/01/2021

2018 In Review Aerial Views Stillwater St. Croix Valley Area

Feature – 2018 In Review Aerial Views – Stillwater St. Croix Valley Area

2018 In review

https://youtu.be/G3chVLpL_Uw?rel=0

https://youtu.be/Rw1rRNXlHf4?rel=0

View Related Content

Check out our post about Winter Motorcycle Ice Racing here, Stillwater Lights here, Dynamic Fall Cloud Inversion Weather (Dragon Breath) on St. Croix River here, and 10th Annual Withrow Tractor and Classic Car show here, The Outing Lodge at Pine Point here.

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.

View additional videos and images in our Gallery page here.

Visit, follow and like us on Social Media sites shown below including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube.

05/10/201825/03/2024

Dynamic Fall Weather St. Croix River Inversion Fog Dragon Breath

Dynamic Fall Weather St. Croix River Inversion Fog Dragon Breath. One of the things I enjoy about living in the Minneapolis St. Paul metropolitan area is the changing weather and seasons, if you don’t like it, wait and will change. That has been the scenario past week or so here the Stillwater St. Croix River valley eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin areas. So far in the past week, we have seen highs near 70 lows of freezing frost, clear and windy to wall clouds and tornadoes. We have also seen partly cloudy with calm windows high humidity between rains including inversion fog layers on the St. Croix River.

Some drone-based aerial views above and around Stillwater as well as St. Croix River valley over the past week. These include visits to Stillwater Fire Department open house, Art Fair, fall colors, St. Croix Sailing School High School Regatta in Hudson, new St. Croix Crossing bridge and much more.

From a sUAS or drone flying perspective, strong winds are a challenge and even more so are rain. However, in between those conditions, there have been some great opportunities to go upstairs and gets some different and unique perspective views that past week.

For example, check out the following video that I captured the other evening of inversion fog layer over St. Croix River valley shortly before evening severe storms arrived.

Dynamic fall weather resulted in Layer of Inversion Fog (Dragon Breath) Over St. Croix River flows south under Arcola Soo Line High Bridge towards Stillwater MN.

Some Tips, Recommendations and Reminders

Keep the weather in mind, head in the clouds and feet on the ground meaning watch the sky along with weather, while you are safe on the ground. Weather can change quickly, so be ready, plan ahead, watch forecasts and be prepared. When you contact any airports or air traffic control for the areas you will be flying (e.g. for those in Stillwater area, the downtown riverfront is controlled airspace), ask for conditions at their location to compare with your own local. If you are flying an sUAS or drone, keep your eyes on the aircraft, if using first-person view (FPV) goggles have one or more visual observers (VO).

Pay attention to surface winds along with those aloft, look around where you are going to be flying. Look at flag poles which way they are pointing, the direction of clouds, smoke from chimneys and other indicators. Also, note that winds can vary at the surface as well as a few feet to hundreds of feet up in the air. Another consideration is how the windows can be more turbulent around buildings, bluffs, hills and other structures, something to keep in mind. Note that while your drone may have automation and is fine once up in the air (watch out for fly-away during high winds), the landing may be a challenge. Likewise, not if, rather what happens when your software based automation AI enabled drone stops working and you need to land manually? How will you avoid a crash? The answer is being prepared.

Something I have noticed is that changing weather, the birds can be an indicator of when to land or get out-of-the-way if you are flying FPV mode with no VO, how will you see the birds behind or on your sides? Likewise, keep the aircraft in visual line of sight (e.g. don’t fly beyond where you can see it) so that you can recall quickly before developing weather has an impact. Also if you are using filters, adjust accordingly for example if cloudy try an ND4. Have fun, however, be prepared, be safe.

Check out our post about Winter Motorcycle Ice Racing here, Stillwater Lights here, and 10th Annual Withrow Tractor and Classic Car show here, along with our 2018 In Review Aerial Views here.

View additional videos and images in our Gallery page here.

Visit, follow and like us on Social Media sites shown below including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube.

Browse, shop and buy print, digital downloads, wall art, and other items by clicking here to access our online SmugMug store.

In addition to our SmugMug online store, we also have a FineArtAmerica site where you can shop, buy prints, puzzles, wall art and other items.