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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. |
If you're anything like me, you probably have plenty of regrets. You know, those things from long ago that sometimes keep you awake at night. I would love to go back and live life over again - you know, try and do it all right this time. Although, I wonder if I'd succeed if I even had that chance. In light of all that, I think the way that's already been provided is a little easier to grasp.
I drove 100 miles photographing storms this evening, but this was one of those times that I would have done better to have just stayed home.
At 7:30pm, large, rapidly developing cumulonimbus were towering over the mountains southeast of Charleston. Radar showed an intensifying horseshoe-shaped line of cells in northeastern Kentucky moving into the southern WV coalfields. I estimated that the line would reach central Boone County at sunset, so I headed south on Corridor G. New cells were quickly pushing skyward, and the outlook looked promising. But when I reached Madison, the line to the south had weakened considerably- and I decided to head back home.
I arrived back in Charleston at 9:30pm and had been home no more than 5 minutes when loud thunder and bright flashes suddenly commenced outside. One of the cells in the line had maintained its intensity and was heading northwest across Charleston. I grabbed the gear and ran up into the cemetery behind the house, and set the cameras up facing southeast. I could see the wall of heavy rain approaching fast, so I knew I wouldn't have long to shoot. This set of two strikes about 1.5 miles away posed for the camera, just minutes before the rains forced me back inside for the night.
Camera/Lens/Film: 35mm Pentax K1000 SLR, 28mm lens, Fujichrome Sensia II 100 slide.
Exposure: 15 seconds @ F5.6/F8
