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In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
All of West Virginia's post-sunset storms avoided Charleston this evening, passing just to the north and to the south of town. For once that wasn't a bad thing, as it allowed me to have two hours of shooting time at Fort Hill with no rain to deal with. The lightning was good, but with the distant vantage point, not much to write home about tonight. Right at sunset, a small storm fired just to the northeast of town, sending frequent CGs directly behind the skyline. It was still too bright outside for long exposures, but I did scrape by with one bolt at F9 with 2-second exposures (the fourth photo below).
The following are a couple frames from video. The first shot is an isolated cumulonimbus sending out a cloud-to-ground strike behind downtown earlier in the afternoon.
