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.
The only weather-related photo I have to post from the past week is of this weak thunderstorm and shelf cloud moving southwest into downtown on Tuesday. It's an interesting view only because a storm moving in from the north-northeast is pretty unusual.
Other than that, the weather scene in the USA has been pretty dead, as it tends to be this time of year. Fred (in the Atlantic) became a major hurricane for a short time, but is now quickly fading into nothing. Blue skies and mild temperatures are going to dominate for at least the next few days in the central Appalachians - great for getting out and taking in the last days of summer.
Video studio updates
After several 15-hour work days of research and testing, I've finally found an acceptable workflow for professional-grade chroma keying. This saga was much more involved (and more costly) than I had anticipated. Which is a good thing - you don't want to be in the business in doing something that is easy for just anyone to do. Basic chroma keying is pretty simple, but a good key - one that is acceptable for professional use - is an elusive goal. It takes just the right combination of lighting, (expensive) software and settings to look right - and I've definitely paid my dues (both in time and money) to find it. I finally finished my first clean render this week, and I'll hopefully get it posted here sometime soon.
Normal sleep!
You might have noticed from my blog post times this past week - today marks the 10th straight day that I have been running on a normal sleep schedule. That's a milestone - I haven't had a streak of more than a couple of days of sleep-at-night, work-during-the-day in a very long time, probably years now. In fact I've been waking up without an alarm clock between 4:30 and 9 every morning, and I have to say it's pretty nice. The new web video work prospects have been a good motivator to get in here early in the morning and get things going. For a long time I hadn't been sure where my business was going in the post-weather video market collapse world - and finally I think I can see some career direction again. Of course, the Lord sometimes has plans laid out that mean I can never be certain what lies ahead a week, or month or even a day in the future - but at least for now it's nice to have something more certain to put time and energy into.
Sorry, not much else to talk about at the moment! Just trying to keep the gap in between blog posts from getting too long.
Great composition nonetheless! Just as boring here. I'm surprised you didn't go for the ISS/Discovery flyby's? That was fun, not as easy as it might seem. - Posted by Paul from Decatur, IL
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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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