Category: Uncategorized

Today was a very busy day for me. Not only was I covering the snow early this morning but I was back out shooting video for The Weather Channel this afternoon. In between, still encoding video for the on line video collection. This Windows Media stuff takes a while but then again, I have about 300 videos that I’m making for the site.

I was out shooting some snow video for The Weather Channel this morning around Minneapolis. The snow is back but not much to save this winter. It looks like my forecast for a brutal winter is busted. My forecast was for a wicked winter but I was wrong. Hey, it looked like it was going to be nasty the way that November started out.

1/29/2006 Today I was out shooting more video for The Weather Channel of the snow in the Twin Cities. Snow is rare now with the record temps that we have been having.

Snow video in St. Paul, MN for the Winter Carnival

1/28/2006 Out playing Weather Channel photographer again today with this strange weather. It is the middle of winter but it was not snow but rain falling in the Twin Cities. The St. Paul Winter Carnival is really felling the hurt with the ice sculptures melting and lakes thawing out.

1/27/2006 I get back from Florida and did not notice that much of a difference in the weather…

I was out around the lakes in Minneapolis for The Weather Channel to video tape the warm weather. Shorts in the middle of winter, yes, it’s that warm outside.

1/26/2006 Today I finished up my Scuba training and just need to take the open water tests. I am loving this new hobby. It has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for fun and for photo and video work. After I got out of class, I met up with my buddy Brian who also shoots for BNVN in the Tampa / St. Pete / Sarasota market for us for The Weather Channel. We hung out for the day and kicked around some video ideas for different locations and shot some footage for TWC.

After leaving Brian’s place I decided to head south to Punta Gorda to stop in to the Celtic Ray Pub to see how they were doing.

The Celtic Ray is the Pub that we helped out with selling the Hurricane Charley DVD so that they could get back on their feet. Well, I’m happy to say that they are doing great and their already starting the rebuilding of the building that was destroyed in Charley.

Below is a photo of the owner, Kevin, showing me the Magazine cover that he was on that talks about how he made a come back after the storm. While hanging out at the pub and talking to some friends from Punta Gorda, it was great to know that with all the B. S. that I had to put up with from the egos of a few people that were involved with that project, it was all worth it to see people having a good time and relaxing.

Everyone told me that night, if it was not for the Hurricane Charley Video, the pub would not be their today. And as the cook, Matt said to me, don’t worry about the other guys that got rock star egos, you nailed Katrina in New Orleans and your on a successful solo career now.

1/24/2006 After my scuba class today I was out shooting video for The Weather Channel of the dense fog. The fog got really bad after the cold front moved through the area. One person died after being hit while crossing the road in the fog and the driver did not see them in time.

1/23/2006 Today I was out shooting some video for The Weather Channel in the St. Pete Beach area. I was out before my scuba class on the beach to get people getting in their morning walks and runs. Then after class, I went back to my hotel and noticed a perfect sunset. So I shot some more footage for The Weather Channel evening show.

1/17/2006 Out shooting video of the snow and poor roads for The Weather Channel for the morning shows.

1/16/2006 Out shooting for The Weather Channel morning show.

1/14/2006 Today I was out doing some Paparazzi work at the Mall Of America. Real Paparazzi work with Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis) and Hilarie Burton (Peyton Sawyer) of the WB TV Show, One Tree Hill. I was able to get some great B-Roll footage with them signing autographs for all their fans. They both seemed pretty down to earth and amazed with how many people showed up to see them. Hilarie also explained the bandage on her right hand. She said “It was a bar fight but then Sophia joked and said no, my dog bit her.” Hilarie then said, “I cut my hand in the kitchen while washing dishes the other day but a bar fight or dog bite sounded better.”

1/14/2006 PM – The Weather Paparazzi Blog Pages are finally up and running. Everything is back on line but some links may not be working still

1/13/2006 Today as you can tell, I’m working on the new blog page. This is a lot of work to clean up the mess I had with my blog. A lot of mess, but when its done, it will look a lot more professional.

1/12/2006 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer again today. Today it was in the 40s and was almost spring like to where I was thinking about gearing up for some storm chasing.

1/11/2006 Almost done with the video catalog for the new site. Month’s of worth of work, no, over a years worth of work is just about done. I can’t believe it is almost done and then I can move on and focus on just updating the new Weather Paparazzi site with new content, and of course, having fun shooting the new content. How Much Content Have I Reviewed? Well, Let Us Add Up The Hard Drive’s. Twenty Seven Drives! 1- 40 Gig, 7 – 80 Gig, 3 – 160 Gig, 3 – 200 Gig, 10 – 250 Gig, & 3 – 300 Gig Drives. Total 27 @ 5.04TB. That’s over Five Terabytes of video that I have reviewed for the new site so I could pick out the coolest footage from my 8 years of video since I started freelancing for The Weather Channel. Now that I think back at all the work I have done on this project, damn, it was a lot more then I could ever conceive but it was well worth it. Once this is finished, I will have so much free time on my hands I won’t know what to do until storm chasing season starts in a few months.

1/8/2006 Wow, almost 2 weeks straight on keeping a normal schedule. Its so strange to wake up in the morning and start working in my home office by 8am then stop at 4pm and then leave it to relax. I’m shocked at how much work I was able to do by keeping a normal schedule. All of the video is digitized and I’m well on my way to completing the video catalog and indexing. I took a break from the video work this afternoon to go out and play weather channel photographer again since it was snowing out. First time we have had snow in the city in a while.

1/6/2006 Today I completed the very last tape review at 10:20 this morning. Everything is in the computer now and I just have to review all the digital video files. The plan is to release weather paparazzi in a week and then slowly ramp down the lightningboy.com site as I transition it all to the new site. All of the hurricane video, and more of the Hurricane Katrina video as well as the rest of the canes from this year will be on line for viewing. Yes, there will be ad’s but hey, I’m a paparazzi, A Weather Paparazzi, I sell this stuff to make a living 🙂

1/4/2006 Another busy but productive day. My new years resolution was to get back into living a normal life with normal sleep. So far so good. I have not felt this great in years and on day five of getting at least 8 hours of sleep a day and working during the day like normal people, its strange but I’m also getting a lot of work completed. I have a huge chunk of video now edited and cataloged and I’m down to the last 450 Gigs of video to review. One hour is about 15 gigs so its a few more days worth of work until the catalog is complete. Today I also got my new video editing software and no sooner then I loaded it on the laptop, the assignment desk called and wanted me to go out and shoot some cold weather footage. I’m just finishing up the video for them right now and then back home to play with the new software.

1/3/2006 Out covering some Dense Fog in southern Minnesota.  With the airport being closed due to fog, I was able to go out to the end of the runway and get some foggy video.

1/1/2006 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Today is an historic day to say the least. BNVN is going into its 6th year and as of 10:40 AM central time this morning, I finished the tape archive digitization project. I have reviewed over 500 hours of my own footage and digitized the best stuff for the new web site, Weather Paparazzi that is set to launch in a couple weeks. Now its all digitized, but I still have to review the footage and catalog it all for stock and on line streaming, but that is the easy part.

12/31/2005 Home Relaxing and letting the computer run on auto pilot to digitize the last of the video archive for the new Weather Paparazzi website. Almost done with the archive.

12/30/2005 Today was an extreme video day. I started shooting at midnight for The Weather Channel for the early show and then I was booked up again for second morning show. I got a lot of great snow footage today including a couple of aftermath of some cars spun out due to the roads being slick.

When I thought I was done for the day, and could relax, I got booked for a third video of people out in the snow for the new Weekend View show on The Weather Channel. The producers wanted to have some fresh footage of the snow storm today for tomorrow morning broadcasts.

12/28/2005 Back home relaxing and working on Weather Paparazzi site and sorting through all the video from yesterday.

12/27/2005 Took a break from working on the new Weather Paparazzi web site to go out on a day long video adventure. I needed more fog footage so I headed south to the Minnesota and Iowa boarder to shoot some night time footage. The next thing I know I was feeding out footage to The Weather Channel then I was in Des Moines Iowa. Today was a very busy day but I got a ton of fog footage for the new site. I just wish there was some weather in Kansas City so I could have shot three videos in three states in one day for TWC. Maybe next week…

Below are all the videos packages that I shot for TWC.

12/24/2005 Ho Ho Ho, this morning it was a white christmas, well, sort of… The fog over the Twin Cities was thick early this morning.

12/23/2005 Busy working on finishing up the new video archive. I had to pick up another 500 Gigs of hard disk space to help get everything into the order. Yes I’m over the 5 Terabyte’s of disk storage space. I only have a couple more hundred hours of footage to review before I start the coding of the new page. But a lot of that will be reviewing and double checking of footage.

12/20/2005 Out shooting cold weather video for The Weather Channel again today. I can’t wait until the warm up happens later this week.

12/19/2005 Back to working on the webpage revamp. I’ve decided that I’m pretty much throwing out the Lightningboy.com page and the BNVN.com pages and going for the Weather Paparazzi and rebuilding everything from the ground up with everything working the way I want it to work. Correct spelling, html that is not broke, you know, doing it right the way it should be in the first place. Before I begin the new Weather Paparazzi page, I’m actually reading several books on internet programing and retraining myself with the latest knowledge, not the stuff I knew 5 years ago…

12/18/2005 Okay, thought I would have the day off but no,  The Weather Channel Assignment desk called me at home and woke me up and said they needed more Minneapolis weather video but this time people doing stuff in the sub zero winds.

12/18/2005 With the extreme cold moving into the area tonight, the temps have dropped well below zero and now we have false aurora.  The extreme cold and still air is making ice crystals that reflect the street lights and it looks kind of like the Northern Lights.

12/17/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer, again at the Mall Of America. Man its been a busy weather week but I’m loving it.

12/16/2005 On Assignment for The Weather Channel for a in depth look at the Minneapolis Weather. Out around town shooting lot’s of footage including some interesting stuff at the Mall of America in a private tour of Under Water World. It was pretty cool at Underwater World with sharks swimming right over you as you walk through the glass tunnel. Oh course I got to talk to Santa who took a break from the North Pole to visit Camp Snoopy 🙂

Also got more snow video here in Minneapolis last night.

12/15/2005 Ok, yesterday was nuts. Four different video packages for The Weather Channel yesterday and I have to go back out for another project for them today about the winter weather. As promised, here is the first 3 packages from yesterday. Click on the image below to watch the raw feed that was sent into The Weather Channel.

12/14/2005 I know I have not been doing a lot of updates but that’s because I have been busy for the past week and a half shooting video for The Weather Channel and working on stuff behind the scenes. Today I have been playing weather channel photographer for the last 12 hours and shot 3 packages for TWC from Midnight through Noon. Traffic really sucked this morning but I was able to get some cool footage. Minneapolis International Airport was getting dumped on with lots of snow as well. I’ll post the footage later tonight of everything I shot today.

12/13/2005 Yes I’m still around, been super busy here with the new webpage and the video archive. I have several hundred videos that I’m putting up on the web for the new site in a few weeks. I have finally embraced the name of what I am doing for a living, it is not Storm Chasing, because just about anyone is called a Storm Chaser these days from professionals to people who run out side of their home in the middle of a storm with their video camera. No, I’m not going to be known or called a Storm Chaser because I do much more then just Storm Chasing. I’m a Weather Paparazzi! Look for the new site to launch in the next few weeks. It will be a merger of BNVN.com which is the business side of the company and Lightningboy.com, which is my personal site.

12/9/2005 Out shooting for TWC today.  It is freaking cold outside here in Minneapolis, MN

12/8/2005 Not weather footage but was out shooting B-Roll of fire fighters in cold weather at an apartment fire.

12/6/2010 Sub zero weather in Minneapolis this morning and I was out in it for TWC.

12/5/2005 This afternoon it was subzero hella cold here in Minneapolis, MN.  The cold snap is just brutal. 

12/3/2005 UPDATE, where the heck have I been and what have I been doing for the last 10 days?

First off, dealing with family stuff since my dad is sick. If your a kid reading this page, DON’T START SMOKING!!! What else have I been up to? Well I have been very busy. I am just about finished with the server switch. Why did I move all my business around? Simple, AVOID USING BPIS or Back Pack Internet Service in Minneapolis at all costs. THEY SUCK. They bought out the ISP I had been doing business with for 8 years and changed everything and their service went down hill fast. I have had to move everything to Godaddy that has the same setup that SCC had before they got bought out. Ton’s of work that I did not need to do but got forced to do. Lots of wasted time. Also out shooting video of some crazy winter weather today.

In the last 10 days I have also been very busy shooting video of the snow and cold for The Weather Channel. Yesterday alone was a full day with shoots for the morning and evening shows. Busy but I like it and now I’m working on the new site now that everything is almost synchronized after the server move.

11/30/2005 Today I was out covering the snow storm and shoppers at the Mall of America for TWC.

11/28/2005 In western Minnesota covering the Blizzard that is hitting the area.  Shooting lots of Blizzard video.

11/28/2005 This morning I’m working on a video project at the Minneapolis International Airport to cover holiday travel.

11/25/2005 Out shooting video this afternoon for TWC in Saint Paul, MN.  

11/23/2005 This morning I was out shooting video for the weather channel in Menomonie, WI.  More slick roads from the snow footage.

11/21/2005 Another morning video shoot for The Weather Channel today. What happened to the snow? I don’t know but I’m going into a space weather withdrawal with the lack of Auroras. This fall has been pretty lame for Northern Lights.

11/19/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer this morning for most of the morning. This morning was a very interesting morning. I was expecting snow but it was too warm. Bummer. I shot the video this morning at Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. It was a good video shoot, everything went smooth, until I saw something I have never seen before… What did I see? Bald Eagles making lake Calhoun there home. I rushed to get the video up for the morning show then I went back to the lake and searched for the Eagles. I found them and they were the main attractions to everyone once I pointed my camera towards them. People were jogging around and looking at what I was looking at then just stopped in awe of the huge Eagles. Click on the image below to watch the video.

11/18/2005 This weekend is BOOKED Solid!!! My pals at the assignment desk at The Weather Channel called today, several times, and booked me up this weekend to photograph the weather for them. This afternoon it was the warmer temps that was the main story but the snow will be moving in tomorrow and Sunday and Monday. What is a major bummer is my last shoot is for Monday morning and NHC today issued forecasts for Tropical Storm GAMMA. If it can hold off until Monday Night or Tuesday, I’ll be there. Now there is the ultimate storm chase, Winter Storm in the morning, Tropical Storm System in the Evening.

11/16/2005 SLEEP, its a good thing. Pretty wore out after about 800 miles in the last 4 days and shooting 5 major weather packages for The Weather Channel. Now its time to get caught up but with the cold and wind today, that may not happen until tomorrow.

11/15/2005 SNOW!!! This morning TWC was in Minneapolis for the snow storm but the freezing line was out west. So, while they were broadcasting from downtown Minneapolis, I headed out west after stopping down to say hi. I headed out to Windom MN were the snow was falling and the winds were gusting to over 40 MPH or tropical storm force. Even though it was tropical storm force, it was freaking cold!!!

11/14/2005 Back out again shooting video this morning for The Weather Channel. It is getting cold out and this morning was a real shock to the system.

11/13/2005 Back out shooting more video for The Weather Channel this afternoon as the winds of change, or a on coming winter storm, are moving into the metro area.

11/13/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer again this morning as the cold November rain is getting ready to change over to snow. Storm Chasing last night and cold rain and maybe snow later. One thing is for sure, you won’t catch me fishing at Lake Harriet in this weather. Brrrrr.

Tonight, Don’t Miss Season Of Fury, Hurricanes Of 2005 Only On The Weather Channel

11/12/2005 Chased in Iowa tonight, could not get to the storms in time due to other projects for TWC. This is why I live in Minnesota and not in Oklahoma…

REST OF TONIGHT: Windy. Rain showers and isolated thunderstorms late in the evening…then rain showers and snow showers likely after midnight. Some thunderstorms may produce tornadoes…large hail and damaging winds late in the evening. New snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Lows around 35. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph increasing to northwest 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 50 mph after midnight. SUNDAY: Colder…windy. Mostly cloudy. A 40 percent chance of snow in the morning. Highs around 40. Northwest winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts to around 55 mph decreasing to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to around 40 mph in the afternoon.

11/12/2005 Wow, looks like I won’t even have time to sleep in the next 5 days. A major storm system is moving into the Midwest. Storms later today in southern MN and Iowa but then it looks like it will be turning into severe snow with another snow system moving in later on Monday and Tuesday. Winter is coming!!!

11/12/2005 Webpage Update. I’m still working to get everything centralized again.

11/11/2005 Just found out that The Weather Channel is going to be showing Season Of Fury – Hurricanes 2005. If you want to see a ton of my work this year, tune into The Weather Channel on Sunday evening at11/13/2005 9PM ET.

11/10/2005 On assignment in Iowa today. Gezzz, I need some new music for these road trips. I only had the one Billy Idol Greatest Hits CD with me and after hours on the road, its not so great… Oh well, I could listen to the farm reports on the radio… Um, that CD does not sound so bad now…

11/09/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer again today in Minneapolis. It was very windy in Minneapolis today as winds in downtown were gusting to over Tropical Storm force.

11/07/2005 In Chicago today to meet with some TV Producer’s about a bunch of Hurricane video shows.

11/04/2005 Major hardware and service upgrade in process this month to finish the webpage merger and upgrade for Lightningboy.com and BNVN.com

11/02/2005 Back home in Minneapolis after helping promote the new National Geographic, Inside Hurricane Katrina special.

The 2 hour documentary is receiving great reviews from everyone and is a real great piece of work that shows why everything happened the way it did. You can also purchase my personal Hurricane Chaser Video Diary of Hurricane Katrina, Before, During and After DVD on my web store.

11/1/2005 In New York City for National Geographic to be on Fox News.

11/01/2005 On the set of Fox And Friends Morning Show For Hurricane Katrina Video for National Geographic Inside Hurricane Katrina Promo

10/31/2005 Doing a lot of promotional public relations stuff for National Geographic Channel this morning then flying to New York City Tonight.

10/30/2005 Getting ready for another trip. This time it is to New York City. On November 1st, the National Geographic Channel will premiere Inside Katrina. It is pretty strange, I’m packing for the trip but when I started packing I was looking for survival gear and had to say to myself, stop, this is just a trip to New York to talk about the hurricane, your not going hurricane chasing.

10/28/2005 Moving all of my data to a new server site. Turns out Backpack Internet in Minneapolis sucks since they bought out SCC.net and will not honor the agreements I had with the old owner of SCC.net to host my server

10/27/2005 Taking much needed time off to catch up on stuff and answer the stack of mail, watch TV and pretty much forget about the weather for a few days.

10/25/2005 10 PM Central – I’m home in Minneapolis and have finished the Hurricane Wilma video and photo blog page. Click on the image to go to the Hurricane Wilma video and photo blog.

10/24/2005 – 11 PM Eastern – I’m alive and just waking up after another major hurricane intercept. We were on Marco Island for the first half of the storm and drove out during the eye. Then Naples for the second half of the storm. I have some awesome footage. I’m editing right now to post to the web. I should have it up by morning. I just slept all afternoon so I’m now up for the rest of the night until my flight leaves at noon.

10/23/2005 10 PM Eastern – Heading to Naples Florida. Check out the webcam to watch live during the chase. I got 2 hours in the last 3 hours and last night I got lots of sleep so I am READY for Hurricane Wilma.

10/23/2005 In Punta Gorda Florida awaiting Hurricane Wilma. Not much to see yet since the storm is still a couple days away. I did go out and shoot some video of the surfers for fun and hang out with friend Brian on beach. I think later tonight will be interesting. Its 530 AM now and I’m off to get some sleep. I wanted to sleep in until this afternoon in case this storm hits during the overnight. If you calling me, please do not call until after 3pm Eastern. Because if you wake me up, I will not be happy!!!!

10/21/2005 EnRoute to Punta Gorda Florida for Hurricane Wilma video blog. Punta Gorda is not the target but since Hurricane Wilma is going so slow, I figured I would get down to Florida a day or two early and visit my friends at the pub then wrap up the end of the Hurricane Charley DVD stuff.

10/18/2005 Getting everything ready for the Hurricane Wilma video blog. Looks like another hurricane intercept in Florida this weekend. At this time it is too early to tell where Wilma will hit or when but I’ll be there when it does.

10/15/2005 Finally relaxing and enjoying some time off when guess what, another tropical storm is brewing. National Hurricane Center just released their forecast for TD 24, to become “Hurricane Wilma” by the end of the week and in striking distance of Florida. Looks like another Hurricane Intercept. What am I going to be for Halloween? I guess a hurricane chaser!!!

10/12/2005 Out shooting rain video for The Weather Channel this afternoon.

10/11/2005 While going out to take care of some stuff, most of the Burnsville police went flying past me. Figured something was up, I found that there was a shooting down the street.

10/08/2005 Out shooting Aurora footage up north. The auroras were nice but remained low on the horizon.

10/5/2005 The Conus deal is done. More info to come.

10/5/2005 Recovering from a 2 day long tropical storm like storm chase in Minneapolis. Sleep is good!!!! Finally getting everything caught up with all the work.

Non Stop Flooding around the south metro

10/04/2005 Water Water Everywhere in Minneapolis tonight. Out shooting a ton of footage for The Weather Channel.

10/1/2005 Out shooting video for The Weather Channel in Minneapolis today. Its 82 outside and feels more like July the October.

9/25/2005 Back home and hope to stay here for a while. Working on finishing up the Katrina DVD.

9/24/2005 Hurricane Rita, Port Arthur Texas Hurricane Rita video footage.

9/23/2005 Sorry Rory, There was a hurricane 🙁 I’m currently in Houston Texas and getting ready to head towards the North East after I get cleaned up at my hotel and take a short nap. Need Sleep before I go out and shoot more Hurricane Rita footage.

9/21/2005 I was out chasing the severe storms in the northern metro area of Minneapolis this evening for The Weather Channel. Crazy, less then 24 hours from Hurricane Rita in Key West and I’m in Minneapolis.

9/21/2005 Back home in Minneapolis for a day or so to get ready for Hurricane Rita in Texas. I have uploaded two large Hurricane Rita videos from yesterday in Key West. The Hurricane Rita footage is pretty crazy since there were a lot of people out in the storm in Key West. Click on the image below to go to my Hurricane Rita video blog.

9/21/2005 A.M. In Miami, out of Key West and Hurricane Rita and Heading home to Minneapolis to get cleaned up and then back off to intercept Rita’s second land fall. I will post the videos from Key West as soon as I get back to Minneapolis by Noon central time. This was an interesting chase. Killed the Digital Still Cybershot with surge. I had to use my backup video camera since The Weather Channel needed my main camera since it got damaged due to the storm. I was able to hook them up so that they could do all the live footage from Key West all day while I went out and shot B-Roll footage of the storm.

9/20/2005 12:30 AM Eastern. In Key West and shooting lots of Hurricane Rita footage. Well not yet because its still a tropical storm but it was a perfect day in Key West Florida as people got ready for Tropical Storm Rita or Hurricane Rita. Lets just call it the next storm to hit the gulf for now. Click on the image below to go to the Hurricane Rita video and footage blog

9/19/2005 EnRoute to Key West Florida for Hurricane Rita. I will be posting my Hurricane Rita video blog here soon. Tropical storm Rita is expected to become a Hurricane later tonight and hit Key West Tuesday. I will be chasing Hurricane Rita with world famous videographer Mark Rackley.

9/15/2005 Called off the Hurricane Ophelia chase, looks like something else is brewing in the tropics.

9/14/2005 Woke up in Minneapolis, had lunch in Chicago and met with clients for an upcoming Hurricane Katrina video project, and back home in Minneapolis for dinner. Today was a first for me as I got to ride the subway. Nothing special about it but Chicago is one cool town!!! Now just trying to see if I can make it to North Carolina, or if its even worth it to go.

9/13/2005, I’m still in MN but was out chasing yesterday. Ahhhh, good to be back out chasing close to home again. I was on several tornadic warned storms but it was all just heavy rain and lots of strong winds. I was heading back home when I got a call from The Weather Channel to shoot Minneapolis Bow Echo. Click on the image below to watch the video. It was fun, Tropical Storm Force Winds on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis.

9/11/2005, Hurricane Chase on hold, Ophelia still stationary so waiting until Monday or Tuesday before I decide if it’s worth intercepting. But, I was out shooting video for The Weather Channel this afternoon in Minneapolis about the heat since it was almost 90F. It felt more like July the September.

9/11/2005 Hurricane chase is on hold, out shooting Northern Lights footage in Central Minnesota right now.  Waiting to see the morning forecasts before I head out for Hurricane Ophelia.

9/10/2005 En Route to Myrtle Beach SC to Intercept Hurricane Ophelia. I will start posting my Hurricane Ophelia video blog as soon as I get on the ground.

9/10/2005 AM – Out playing Weather Channel Photographer again this morning over at Calhoun and Harriet.

9/9/2005 Still trying to kick the funk, went to the Doc this week and got some wicked insane anti-biotics. 

9/8/2005 Out shooting video for The Weather Channel this morning in St. Paul. MN. Just another perfect day.

9/6/2005 Out shooting lightning video for The Weather Channel this morning in Minneapolis. It was one of the better light shows of the year. Click on the video below to watch the lightning video.

9/4/2005 Was back out shooting for TWC and KSTP this morning.

9/3/2005 Back to normal for me but I don’t think I will ever be the same after living though Katrina in New Orleans. Anyway, I was just out shooting video for The Weather Channel in Minneapolis. Here is some crazy close lightning video I shot today.

9/1/2005 MAJOR Hurricane Katrina video web site update taking place The video is back on line but in a lower resolution.

8/31/2005 I’m still alive and back in Minneapolis. I evacuated the area last night and caught a flight home from Houston. Been up for 28 hours, going to bed and will try not have nightmares about what I saw yesterday and the day before. New Orleans Is Destroyed, It Is Gone. The Town Is GONE!!!  It’s almost all under water!

Updating the blog page for this storm here. https://www.weatherpaparazzi.com/welcome-to-my-hurricane-katrina-video-diary-and-photo-blog/

I will update the page more with lots of photos and more video when I wake up.

8/29/2005 What did I just live through? I was in New Orleans shooting Hurricane Katrina video for The Weather Channel and oh my god, that was insane!!! I did not get the eye that other chasers wanted but what I got was far better. Major Hurricane hitting a Major City, which means major winds hitting skyscrapers! Oh yeah, I watched some insane stuff today!!!  The flooding is starting and there are reports that the levee’s failed or are failing.  Internet is spotty at best and I have a limited connection at my hotel.  Cell phones are worthless as the cell towers are gone.  I can only get cell signal near the airport. 

8/28/2005 Early AM: Just updated the site with the Evacuation footage as Interstate 10 east was turned in the Contra Traffic Lane, which means all lanes of traffic on Interstate 10 head west out of New Orleans. Click on the graphic below for my Hurricane Katrina video and photography blog.

8/27/2005 En Route to the U.S. Gulf Coast for Hurricane Katrina video and photography chase for The Weather Channel. I will be updating my Hurricane Katrina video blog before, during and after the storm. Click on the graphic below for my Hurricane Katrina video and photography blog.

8/26/2005 Took the last few days off to try and kick this funk that has turned into walking pneumonia but still coughing like crazy and feel like crap but their is a hurricane coming that I can’t miss.  This is going to be the big one.

8/22/2005 Been ordered to take several days off and not do anything, no video, no work, just stay home and sleep.  The funk I have is starting to turn into walking walking pneumonia.

8/21/2005 Still recovering from being sick but was up to getting back into the swing of thing’s and was out playing Weather Channel Photographer today. I was out at the Minneapolis Rose Garden shooting video for the evening show.

8/19/2005 Got woken up to the sound of sirens and news on the scanner about a major wreck that shut down Interstate 35W near my home in Burnsville, MN this morning.  Someone went Dukes Of Hazard off the frontage road next to the Best Buy storm in Burnsville and launched their truck onto Interstate 35W. 

8/16/2005 Still sick but got a little burned out staying home and sleeping so I went out and shoot some rain footage for TWC tonight.

8/13/2005 Well this was not how I was thinking about spending the one year after hurricane Charley date but I was at home sick still when I heard a police call come over the scanner right down the street from me.  I felt good enough to go out for a few minutes to shoot video and got this interesting news package for KSTP tonight for the morning show.

8/11/2005 Still home in Minneapolis and recovering. I’ve been out of action and sick for the last 2 weeks for the most part. Been pretty much sleeping and barfing for the last two weeks and trying to do the video requests as they come in but I’m not doing any chasing at all outside of the metro area.  Just quick video shoots and back to bed. 

The Doc thinks I got Mono from the Hurricane Dennis chase because of all the stuff flying through the air.   Stuff as in the outdoor “Porta Potty” that were picked up by the hurricane and thrown into the wind.  We watched a few of them blow around so it makes sense if that is what is the case.  I just don’t know where the hell I caught this funk.

Here is the video I shot today for TWC and KSTP.

8/9/2005 I can barely stay awake but yet I was out again for the network shooting the severe storms this morning.  I think I might be making this funk I got worse by not resting.

8/8/2005 Feeling like death warmed over but had to do a morning show shoot this morning in downtown Saint Paul for TWC.  Not one of my best videos but hey it was still pretty damn good considering I’m suppose to be in bed and sleeping per doctors orders.

8/5/2005 Out Sick, I caught Mono, can’t eat, can barely drink water, TWC wanted me too shoot video and I could barely put the camera on the tripod on my deck to shoot lightning. Ugh, being this sick sucks and I have not been sick in years! I guess it all comes back at me at once to bite me in the ass.

Here is the video I shot from my deck.  I actually put the camera on the tripod and went back to bed for a while then just edited the footage.

8/3/2005 – Very Sick, Dr. thinks its Mono or Maybe West Nile… Lost a lot of weight and very very sick!  I will be out of action for the next week or maybe longer.

7/30/2005 Out shooting video for The Weather Channel this morning at Lake Harriet at sunrise. I feel like crap today and getting very sick. I don’t know why but its not good!

Hopefully this goes away soon and is not too serious but starting to feel the worst I have ever felt in my life.

7/28/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer again today in Minneapolis this morning.

It felt more like fall then the middle of summer with temps this morning in the low 60s and people were going to work wearing sweaters and jackets.

7/25/2005 Freeborn County – Albert Lea MN Severe Storms / Squall Line Video. Today I went south towards the Iowa and Minnesota state line to chase today. Got on a nice storm just as it started to turn into a wicked squall line. Lots of high winds, wicked clouds and some street flooding. When you watch the video, remember this is REAL TIME, not time lapsed.

7/24/2005 I was out in Iowa storm chasing. Did not have much luck since the storms were mostly heavy rain events but it was fun to get out there by myself and just focus on the storms. Click on the image to view the full sized photo.

7/23/2005 Out shooting severe storm video for KSTP and The Weather Channel today. A Derecho started in North Dakota around midnight and the storm picked up speed and power as it moved through Minnesota and into the Minneapolis metro area.

7/16/2005 Out playing Weather Channel photographer again this morning and shooting some hot weather video in Minneapolis at sunrise this morning.

7/14/2005 Posted A couple more photos to the Hurricane Dennis video blog. These Hurricane Dennis photographs are pretty much a picture tells the whole story, and the story is that Gulf Coast residents of Florida are getting a beating from the weather.

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7/12/2005 Back in Minneapolis and putting together my Hurricane Dennis Video compilation. I have over 3 hours of Hurricane Dennis video from Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre and Navarre Beach Florida.

We also got the eye and were in the strongest part of Dennis with winds in the 120 mph range. All of the raw video that was featured on The Weather Channel and ABC is also on my Hurricane Dennis video blog page now.

The Hurricane Stock Footage tape is available now but is only on a DVCAM 184 minute tape.

7/11/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Blog – Evacuating the area and going home.

Currently in New Orleans and heading for Minneapolis. Yesterday was intense. We got the eye just west of Navarre Florida as it came on shore. The video is being featured on TWC and ABC. I don’t have time to post the videos online right now but will do so when I get home in a few hours.. The video is pretty cool.

7/10/2005 In route to the target area to intercept the eye of Hurricane Dennis. I will have more Hurricane Dennis Video up soon. Already posted several videos yesterday.

7/9/2005 In Mobile AL early this morning and off to the target area for the Hurricane Dennis Video Blog.

7/8/2005 – In route to intercept Hurricane Dennis. I’m contracted out to shoot hurricane Dennis video for the networks and will be posting lots of updates as I get them.

7/6/2005 – In Minneapolis and planning my Hurricane Dennis Video Chase.

7/5/2005 – Working on catching up on the stock video stuff for BNVN.

6/30/2005 I was out today for TWC and shot some windy weather video around Minneapolis, MN.

6/29/2005 Out storm chasing today, caught one tornado near Hanska MN and one funnel cloud near Lake Crystal MN.

6/28/2005 Relaxing At Home, Big day tomorrow. Last night on the way home from the chase bust in southern MN, I did see something interesting.
Here is a Drunk Driver on dash camera as I’m calling it into the Minnesota State Patrol.

6/27/2005 I was out tonight to chase but it was more of a lightning chase.  I was setup in Southern Minnesota and shot some lightning at an airport and got some sweet footage off the end of the runway.

6/27/2005 The it was not raining in St. Paul this morning, it was pouring out as I was out again playing Weather Channel Photographer in downtown St. Paul while people were going to work and getting caught out in the heavy rain.

6/26/2005 Out playing Weather Channel Photographer this morning as I was out shooting video for the morning show and shot video at Lake Calhoun. Click on the image below to watch the video.

6/25/2005 Taking the day off to get caught up and relax

6/24/2005 I do more storm chasing before breakfast, then most chasers do all day long. This morning, a line of storms moved into the south metro of the Minneapolis region and slammed into Dakota County. The storms hit the towns of Lakeville and Farmington MN and flooded streets, knocked down trees and made a mess of the area.

6/23/2005 This morning I was out shooting video for The Weather Channel in Downtown Minneapolis. It was 80 degree’s out before 6:30 A.M. Today is going to be a hot one. Below are the actual blog videos that were shot for the network and the station.

6/23/2005 P.M. video shoot.  Once again I was back out in the record breaking hot weather this afternoon for TWC and KSTP.

6/22/2005 It’s Hot Outside Today. This afternoon I was out shooting some hot weather video at the beach at Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis for The

6/21/2005 Relaxing Today And Taking A Day Off.

6/20/2005 BUSY BUSY BUSY DAY!!! This morning I started out at the crack of dawn, 5:30 A.M. shooting video for The Weather Channel morning show.

After the morning show shoots, I found this wreck aftermath.

Then I headed out to go storm chase for KSTP and The Weather Channel around noon and I got on the line of storms that moved in from North Dakota and intercepted them just north of Albertville MN. Click on the image below to watch the video.

Here is the flooding part of the video that I shot

Then after getting the video out to KSTP and The Weather Channel for the evening shows, I headed back out to southern Minnesota and got on some more storms.

I got some weak rotation right above me but there should be no question about the rotation since I was right under it with the camera pointed straight up. Then I got some sweet lightning footage.

6/19/2005 It’s Hot Out And I’m Out Shooting Video For The Weather Channel. .

6/14/2005 – 6/18/2005 On Vacation And Relaxing.

6/13/2005 Out storm chasing for KSTP today. I was chasing the storms south of Redwood Falls MN. The storms were tornado warned but nothing was falling out of the sky. I saw some nice updrafts and rain free bases along with some hail but nothing to jump for joy over.

Click on the images below to see the larger images.

6/12/2005 Catching up on projects at home.

6/11/2005 Out storm chasing for KSTP in Wisconsin. Ugh, Wisconsin is a nice state but Wisconsin sucks to storm chasin in because of all the hills and trees. With storms moving north at 35 miles per hour and a bad road network, it was pretty hard to keep up with the storms.

6/10/2005 Out storm chasing for KSTP in southwest Minnesota. Just some cold air funnels. Click on the image below to watch the video.

6/10/2005 Out shooting heavy rain video for The Weather Channel and KSTP this morning.

6/9/2005 Relaxing and taking some time off.

6/8/2005 Out shooting video this morning for The Weather Channel.

6/7/2005 This afternoon, I was back out shooting video for KSTP of the storm in Goodhue County around the Kenyon MN area.

6/07/2005 This morning I was out storm chasing and shooting video for The Weather Channel and KSTP. Click on the image below to watch the lightning video.

6/6/2005 Taking the day off and relaxing.

6/5/2005 Out storm chasing for KSTP today. Click on the image below to watch the video.

6/4/2005 This afternoon I was back out shooting more video for The Weather Channel and KSTP, of the heavy rain that hit Minneapolis.

6/04/2005 This morning I was out shooting video for The Weather Channel in Burnsville, MN for the morning show.

6/3/2005 Today was another relaxing day of doing much of nothing today in preparations for a busy weekend of storm chasing. Today I went biking down by the Minnesota River in the Chaska area of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Here is a photo I took on some old railroad track that I came across. I took the color out and made it into a sepia toned black and white photograph to give it an aged look.

6/2/2005 Today I stayed home since I did not like the setup today for western Minnesota. Here is a cool photo I shot off my deck tonight at sun set. Click on the image to see a larger picture.