Mountain Thunder

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

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

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.

Lightning from Kanawha Baptist Temple church mountain, Big Chimney, WV. View is looking south (toward Charleston) on Monday, September 7, 1998 (Labor Day)

I thought storm season was over by this time of year. Boy I was wrong. I saw an enormous storm approaching on radar and drove to a place I had always wanted to shoot from- At Big Chimney, WV (about 6 miles north of Charleston) at the top of the mountain where the Kanawha Baptist Temple church overlooks the Elk River. From the church parking lot, there is a breathtaking view of the valley below toward the west. I was hoping to be able to set up facing that way, possibly getting a lightning flash with the scenic view. However, the storm's gust front followed by torrential rains blowing in hard from the - you guessed it - west prevented me from setting up facing the valley.

After giving up and driving around some more, I ended back up on top of the hill and set up facing south, where a smaller cell was putting on a show. I was out of the rain, so I set up the tripod on the hood of the car and captured these flashes, which are my first-ever photos taken during the month of September.