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. |
RAW VIDEO: RealVideo, 1.2MB - Frequent and close lightning in Putnam County
More video coming soon
Not much of a chase this afternoon, mainly just turning on the dash-mounted video camera and driving home from the office. At 4:30PM, a small line of thunderstorms fired up in western Putnam County and morphed into a rather large single cell that tracked eastward into Kanawha County and over Charleston. Cloud-to-ground lightning was the big story today - frequent, bright and many times close. Nearly every community in the middle Kanawha Valley was affected by the storm, including St. Albans, Nitro, Cross Lanes, Dunbar, South Charleston and Kanawha City.
At first, I stopped briefly at the Teays Valley Kroger's parking lot and filmed the incoming storms for a few minutes before heading east.
Got a big scare when I was involved in a minor two-vehicle accident on rain-slickened Interstate 64 on the big bridge at Nitro. Thankfully no one was hurt and damage to the vehicles was almost nonexistent.
After arriving in Charleston, I stopped on Fort Hill to film a faint rainbow with distant lightning over the State Capitol. The thunderstorm dissipated quickly afterward.
Frames from video:
Lightning and rainbow over the State Capitol:
Very close lightning at Scary Creek on Teays Valley Road:
Close lightning strike at Teays Valley Kroger's:
Digital Video: Sony DCR-TRV900 3CCD MiniDV, 720x480 NTSC
35mm Camera/Lens/Film: Pentax K1000 SLR, 200mm lens, Fuji Sensia 100 slides.
35mm Exposure: 1/125th second @ F8