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.
A short but fruitful chase tonight! This close lightning strike shot at 10mm south of Addieville, IL occurred with surface temperatures of 36°F! You can't see it on this still here, but a shower of orange sparks was visible at the ground, where the bolt connected to power lines. I was stopped down to F7.1 here, but it wasn't quite enough to keep this from partially blowing out. Click this image for a larger verson.
Closer examination of the photo reveals three 'flashovers', places along the power lines where the lightning jumped across insulators to reach ground (click to enlarge):
Sometimes, these flashovers can start a secondary arc from the man-made current in the power line itself, creating a bright blue/turqouise explosion at the arcing point that lingers after the lightning strike is over (see the page on flashovers). The dimmer, 'streaking' orange lights in the image are sodium streetlights (their blur is due to this being a handheld shot).
Awesome. Really, I do love it, I like lightning pics. - Posted by Oisin
Awesome. Really, I do love it, I like lightning pics. - Posted by Oisin
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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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