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.
There was a slim chance for a decent sunset over the city on the evening of Tuesday the 23rd, thanks to a small area of cloud-free clearing to the west in central Missouri. If you are a local resident and keeping up with the Arch grounds renovations, you probably heard that all of the ash trees on the grounds have been cut down. These trees are mainly the ones lining the long main walkways on the north and south ends of the grounds. This has resulted in the most dramatic change in the landscape around the Arch since it was built. This along with the other construction projects has made the entire grounds look like a desolate wasteland, unrecognizable if it weren't for the Arch itself still standing in the middle. Aside from the central greens under the Arch, everything is a muddy mess, punctuated with bright orange construction fences and tall chain link fence barricades.
I had hoped to scout out a few brand-new, never-before-available photo angles of the Arch afforded by the removal of the trees. And there are indeed plenty of them. However, none of the new angles are accessible yet thanks to barricades that block off everything but the immediate area around the Arch. In fact, the only access to the grounds right now at all is either the riverfront stairway or the new pedestrian bridge at Walnut Street - a fact I discovered after a long walk across the Eads Bridge from the Casino Queen parking lot. Simply put, the Arch grounds is a total mess right now, and will likely stay that way until the majority of the renovations are complete. The good news is that the finished product should be worth the current troubles.
Despite the fact I wasn't able to shoot any of the new angles, I did salvage three images from Tuesday's "Christmas Eve-Eve" sunset:
Still good pictures nonetheless. Be careful going there in light of what's happened in the past month. - Posted by Tim
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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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