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.
Please find another term to describe the fraudsters/scammers in your industry! 'Storm photographer' is already taken by an upstanding avocation of over 40 years old.
In the past few years, more and more articles, web sites, forum posts and the like are popping up about 'storm chasers'. These are criminals that show up after hurricanes, tornadoes or hailstorms and use shady/scam tactics and outright fraud in dealing with homeowners regarding repairs to damaged roof and siding, along with the related insurance claims.
Somewhere along the line, someone decided to start using our term 'storm chaser' to describe these people. Wrong! You can't steal or rebrand a title of an established profession or avocation, especially to attribute it to criminals in a related field. Do you call drug dealers 'pharmacists'? How about calling burglars 'movers' or vandals 'landscapers'? You may not think this matters, and if so, you've obviously not dealt much in the realm of public relations. Would you be OK if I used the name of your profession or title to describe a criminal and and start a big media campaign? The general public is ill-informed on things they don't have an interest in, and this double meaning causes confusion. Your web sites and news articles don't even make the distinction. The last thing I need is people being suspicious of me undeservedly. I've already fielded questions about these articles by people who somehow think what I do is connected to this.
So, I don't know who got the ball rolling on using our term 'storm chasers' to brand criminals, but whoever still does, please stop it! It's unprofessional, irresponsible and lazy. Put some actual thought and research into the term. Smearing the name of our avocation makes you no better in our eyes than the criminals you're trying to expose.
I vost "post storm scammer schmucks" - Posted by Michael Thompson from minnesocold
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From Dan: Please Read
Please do not 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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To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice, but unfortunately it has become necessary.
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