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.
Models showed a convective complex developing around midnight in the St. Louis area, and it happened just after 11PM about 20 miles south of New Baden. New thunderstorms are the best in terms of lightning quality, mainly due to the fact that the precip core hasn't fully developed and expanded, allowing for more lightning channels to be visible and 'crisp' outside of the rain. This storm put on quite a show for several hours, with near continuous flashes. The complex was still going strong when I finally decided I'd captured enough images. At the beginning, several 'bolts from the blue' arced out from the updrafts into clear air, with stars visible above. The frequency of the flashes was enough to break out the video camera - I recorded about 30 minutes of the near-constant cloud illumination.
A Perseid meteor streaked across the frame in one of the shots, though the exposure settings I was shooting at didn't allow it to get picked up. After that, I did a series of exposures at meteor-shower settings (high ISO, open aperture) hoping for another, but there were no more. Overall a great nighttime lightning event, one of the best this year so far (and only 15 minutes from home).
When this first one hit, I had the camera pointed high to get stars in the shot. This CG hit the ground a good 5 miles or more to the west of the storm:
More 'bolts from the blue' with stars, with ground connections 1 to 3 miles away from the storm. These are all true verticals (not cropped from horizontals).
Clear starry sky above the storm:
Complex moving eastward with near-continuous lightning. I have about 40 shots like these, I only posted a few examples here since the rest are not very different.
Am so impressed with your work! - Posted by Kathy from S. of Lebanon, Il.
THAT'S AWESOME!!! - Posted by Jake Smith from 8623 Trails Run Road Indianapolis
THAT'S AWESOME!!! - Posted by Jake Smith from 8623 Trails Run Road Indianapolis
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
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