Several pieces of heavy equipment rest after their day's work to rearrange the ground of this formerly hilly building site at the corner of Leonard Street NE and Lafayette Street NE.

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New structures, landscaping, lighting and seating give this spot next to the Grand River an inviting and fresh look. Since it is next to the convention hall, probably there will be many visitors from out of town, and they will particularly be glad for the chance to enjoy the view while taking a break from their meetings.

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Unlike the still photos, this is a single frame taken from the video recording. Since the movies are recorded at 29.97 frames per second (30 fps), it is possible to choose the very best frame to export as a standalone still image suitable for editing and sharing.

At the top left is the existing school, Aberdeen Elementary, about 100 years old and solidly built. This is likely the final instructional year, or certainly the next-but-final year since the progress on the new combined Palmer + Aberdeen elementary will take shape in the coming months.

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This view above the treetops along Lower Herring Lake includes part of Lake Michigan and the sunset horizon to the west. The scale of the two lakes is altogether different, and yet there is much they share: salmon and other fish from the big lake seek the quieter water inland for their eggs to hatch and grow. And the outlet that sometimes opens or closes also means water can flow back and forth, too.

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As a moment frozen in time the picture shows the earliest signs of the fall color season beginning. But over the longer span of lifetimes, the low wetland has attracted runoff from surrounding terrain for many centuries and the natural succession cycle from open water to spongy ground to encroaching types of trees that survive "wet feet" to more and more tree cover is underway in this photo, too.

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San Francisco, CA

One guy in the double trailer truck and the other guy in the front-end loader. The previous loads of sand the driver dumped near the upper right quadrant of the photo and the man with bulldozer or front-end loader spread it out. One trip after another the sand layer is spread across the future site of the new elementary school.

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In the upper left is the "Ionia Free Fair" grounds in this view looking north toward the town commercial center. After weeks with little to no rain, the river level is low enough to reveal the sandy banks of the river now exposed. See also, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionia_Free_Fair and about the Grand River, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_River_(Michigan)

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The street is Diamond as it passes the Catholic church and school on the right and the Fair Plains Cemetery on the left. On the horizon the highground is occupied by a water tower.

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The intersection of Wilson (heading north) and Lake Michigan Drive (from left to right in this photo) is often very busy, especially around the commuting hours. But in this photo there is not too much activity on the roads at this junction.

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The intersection of Lyon and College is at the lower right corner of the photo. Since it is still 30 minutes before the noon hour, the lunchtime crowd is not yet filling the streets.

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Aerial photography

In 1850 a sign on Leonard Street, almost a mile in the distance, shows the city boundary of the time. So when this golf and country club was built along Plainfield Avenue sometime after that, the surroundings really were rural, rather than suburban. Generation by generation, though, the streets and infrastructure spread and now the grassy course is an island of green in the tree-lined neighborhoods that engulf it.

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Grass shaved off. Next comes the surveyor's markers to pinpoint foundations to dig and pour. In a couple years, only dim memories of the "before" will be replaced by the "after" of a shiny new school that consolidates Aberdeen and Palmer elementaries of today.

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Step by step the new design for the park takes shape.

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Almost an hour after daybreak the layer of haze and smoke can be seen in this photo, hovering above the Rail-Trail that runs from Shiawassee County, through Clinton County, and concludes in Ionia County. See also, www.cistrail.org/

According to the 2016 records, there were 22,107 miles of rail trail complete. Michigan has the most total mileage (2,381) of any state, as of 2015. See also, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_trail

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The long rectangular city blocks in this photo have about 22 or 23 houses on each side of the street from one intersection to the next. Most of the properties have 50-foot lots fronting the street.

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The current 1920s school building to the right of this photo will become parking and circle drive (drop-off and pick-up) and then new combined school for current student bodies from Palmer Elementary and Aberdeen Elementary will stand in the left 2/3 of the playing fields shown here.

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02 cn n/k -

INTA UAV -

MAA Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica -

'INTA' c/s wfu psvd -

Cuatro Vientos,

25-May-2024 Madrid, Spain, ESP.

In a month or less the trees will have blossomed and leaves filled with Chlorophyll will be filling in the branches, making this view a canopy of green. But on this morning the bare trees make it possible to see the lines of houses, ranging in construction from 1920s to 2000 or possibly newer. The width of the property lot on the street side in almost all cases is 50 feet, reflecting the need for fitting as many housing units as possible into this part of the city as the population was rising in those decades, especially in the post-WWII demobilizing and ongoing migration from rural to urban living.

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Although the source of the Canadian wildfire smoke is north and west of here, since it blankets much of the US Midwest, this view to the east also shows layers of particulates.

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In a day or two the turf will be turfed out. The workers will be rearranging the land and preparations for laying pipe and wires and cement foundations will transform this view of the 1920s elementary school on Aberdeen Street NE in the north end of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Practically no wind was blowing at mid-morning Tuesday, so the hobby drone easily ascended to the 100' ceiling beginner-limit. In the left part of the picture is a towering flagpole in front of the car dealership. When there is enough wind to make flags ruffle slightly, that is about the maximum windspeed for sub-250g drones to fly safely.

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This view along Railroad Street in downtown St. Johns shows the paved section of the CIS (Clinton, Ionia, Shiawassee counties) Fred Meijer Rail Trail, looking toward the east. Near the bottom of the scene is the red roof of the former train station in the town, last serving travelers with passenger service in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Freight continued to roll for another 10 or 15 years, though.

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Near the parking is the large, covered area, exposed on all four side to allow breezes, but also to give shade and a dry space in case of rain. To the right of this building is a smaller building with running water and flush toilets for those renting the shelter and for anyone else visiting the park, too. During the freezing weather, though, to protect the plumbing, the lines are drained and the doors are locked. Instead, there are portable toilets stationed in the vicinity.

See also, "Grant Pavilion," www.kentcountymi.gov/1716/Grant-Pavillion

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With no wind to contend with the camera on the drone can quickly takes its position to record the view from above. Only the slightest hint of leaves changing color can be seen, perhaps two or three weeks later than normal years. The warm fall days of bright skies have lulled cottage owners into leaving their docks and boats in the water longer than usual, too, judging from this picture.

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Only a handful of heavy equipment operators are doing the labor around 9:15 on Friday morning.

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Aerial photography

Whereas counties to the west of Clinton County have some hilly areas missed by the centuries of glacial movement, here there is very little change in elevation.

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While some condo buyers would think twice before investing in a repurposed factory, others are glad to be conveniently located to the River, to downtown, and the surrounding neighborhoods. This view is pointed north, whence the river comes after turning the bend near 5-Mile Road

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The opening pages of the live radio broadcast sounds like an emergency announcement about outer space creatures riding in something like water towers that stride along the landscape. That dramatic reading was too truthy for many listeners and they called the police or sheriff to find out where to escape and what to do. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds

This photo comes from hobby drone early in the morning looking south across the Fair Plains Cemetery toward the high point in the land where a city water tower stands above the tree tops.

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This freeze-frame is perhaps 45 feet in the air, but the other freeze-frame comes from more like 60 or more feet up. In the beginner mode the drone is limited to 30m (about 100 feet) up and the same distance laterally from the controller's position. Since the device is small, traveling much farther way makes it hard to see with the unaided eye, even though the operating range of the handset is more than 100m or more.

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The rising sun shines on the water tower's east-facing side. This picture looks to the south and east. Near the horizon is a bank of ground fog.

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Perpendicular to the foot bridge below is the north-south road that separates the far side (west half) of the park from the near side (east half) of the park. At first look, the body of water (Lake Leota) seems separated from the one on the left by this isthmus. But a closer look shows that a brige allows the movement of water between both of the basins.

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Since the very last step in building the new school to the left (south) of the current one will be to demolish the building and pave the parking area & drop off lanes, at this time in late April next year (2026), the old 1920s school should still be present. Within a few months after that, though, noise and dust will accompany the demolition crews.

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Like an island of trees, the village stands out from the surrounding arable ground, much of it growing soybeans or field corn (not Sweet Corn).

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The light from the morning sun, left of the photo, brightens the buildings that face it. In this case it is the buildings near the car on the road with its headlight still on. The side of the water tower that looks toward the sun similarly is glowing brightly.

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Probably all the buildings lining the Main Street date to the 1890s to 1910 time frame. Cars have changed a lot. So, too, is the traffic controls: 4-way stops, then traffic signals, then back to the stop signs. Businesses and lives have come and gone. And the things weighing on people's minds have changed with the times, too.

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After the Labor Day Weekend and the return to the school year rhythms of each week, thoughts of fall sports and foods come to mind. This view shows the full green look of summer, just a few weeks before the cold nights and shorter daylight hours tell the trees to pull back their chlorophyll and allow the underlying color patterns to become visible to human eyes.

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San Francisco, CA

The parking lot at the center has a sign near its entrance inviting employees of Medtronic corporation. But across the train tracks is a gated lot for people working or studying at the Pew Campus (downtown) of Grand Valley State University. At the top right edge of the photo a section of the Grand River can be seen. All the cement and asphalt makes it hard to see the same features from the 1868 birdseye view that was drawn and printed for this same view northeast; see, www.loc.gov/resource/g4114g.pm003500/?r=0.162,0.107,0.142...

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Ann Street runs along the lower left and Alpine runs along the upper right in this aerial view pointing southeast to the downtown high-rise buildings of Grand Rapids city center.

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In the lower right corner is a sidewalk trash barrel that gives a sense of scale to the big sculpture installation. The museum stands to the left of the frame and behind the drone camera's position, too. At the top right is a small glimpse of the Grand River in its passage through the city's downtown.

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No gimbal or image-stabilization means the occasional juddering of the 4 motors of the quadcopter fail to produce a crisp picture, particularly in low light. The 10-foot paved section of the former rail line, now rail-trail, can be seen along the left side of the photo.

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Near the center of the village there are several businesses, as well as this paved section of the three-county rail trail. In the distance the rotating Earth brings the sun onto the horizon before it climbs above the clouds.

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