Crossing Lights

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

From Dan: How the crime of copyright infringement took $1 million from me and brought down my business.

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. This page is a detailed account of the biggest threat to my photography and video operation that I had to battle daily to just barely survive, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem facing all of my colleagues as well.

When you think of God 'taking care of you' you're probably thinking about a good life without any problems. Guess what? Not always the case. If you've given your life to Him, God uses the hard times in your life to show you what He can do- and how much He loves you. And in the process, He makes you a better person than you were before. This is good stuff! You'd be surprised at some of the things God has done in my life - one I'd like to tell you about is the story of my friend's Suzuki Samurai. Hold on to your doorframes!

Here lightning flashes over the Conrail (ex-NYC) railroad crossing at Piedmont Road, east Charleston, WV. I was set up underneath the Greenbrier Street overpass (near the State Capitol) during this strong 3:00 A.M. storm. Laidley Field is barely visible in the dark on the far right side of each photo. (View is looking west.)

This first one would have made a great shot, if it weren't for some mysterious anomaly causing the unsightly vertical lines across this frame, neatly positioned at each sprocket hole along the negative. The photo lab insisted that this was caused by me winding the film backwards, but I have my doubts. Oh well.