Help replace my stolen camera gear
Donation protected
This past Saturday night (8/12/17), nearly $7,000 worth of camera gear was stolen out of my car in SF while I was eating dinner after riding. We were inside the restaurant for no more than 45 minutes before returning back to our cars.
Upon walking up to my car, I was instantly filled with fear as I thought my window was left open by mistake. When I got closer, my heart dropped as I realized what had happened- my car window was smashed in and I got robbed.
Realizing how fast you can become a victim of such a dramatic crime has been very unsettling to me the last few days. As I call Pawn shops and warn camera shops that have trade-in policies/used equipment departments to keep an eye out for these items, it has begun to really settle in how much of a loss this equipment is to me.
As many of you know, I do a fair amount of Photo and Video work. Pretty much every piece of media you see from The Trip Apparel comes from my cameras. I have been passionate about filming and photography for the last 12 years and have invested thousands of dollars into lenses and different camera bodies/accessories.
I have also contributed a lot of footage to several of your favorite videos. Anytime one of my friends needs something filmed and I have the right camera for their specific project, I will always film with no questions asked. The only “compensation” I’ve ever received from filming came from TripTape sales and those pretty much covered the cost of what I put into the video. Most of what I film is simply for the passion of filming and helping make BMX videos look the way I think they should.
On top of the work I do using my cameras/equipment, that equipment is also very often times used to film the footage in my own video parts.
Over the past couple years filming for TripTape, I began to build an HD setup I felt was worthy of investing the time and money it takes to build a respectable kit. Filming an entire video in Standard Definition had me itching to switch to and HD setup once the project was done.
Since TripTape's release, I have been getting ready to transition Trip’s media outlets to Full HD and have spent most of the summer learning how to use my cameras/new equipment better. I also made a couple recent equipment upgrades including a Gimbal Stabilizer and a wider lens with Image Stabilization specifically for shooting on the Gimbal. Upgrades that cost me $1650 no less.
I also decided to finance a new computer rather than repalcing my 2012 model iMac (screen broke- more on that later) in support of working with only HD footage and eventually upgrading to a 4k set up after a year or so of getting used to shooting with the gimbal and full HD.
Now I'm stuck paying off a high-speed computer for the next 2 years and have no camera!
My car insurance is going to pay for the “luggage stolen up to $200”. My camera bag was $230, so they will be paying for $200 of that and nothing else.
The deductible for my policy is $500 per claim, so I will have to pay at least that amount toward the repair of my car window and the damages associated with the break-in.
The current retail value of what was stolen adds up to $6854.78 (link to detailed list-http://imageshack.com/a/img924/484/by8mVC.jpg ).
To replace this setup, I have been doing a lot of research into what is the best thing to get for a similar price range with more modern technology (i.e. 4k, 1080/60p, autofocus while recording video, etc).
For those of you interested what you woul be donating towards, here are a couple of builds that I am currently interested in replacing my stolen gear with:
A7Sii
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/2927/7r7h8v.jpg
GH5
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/8703/UEhJEY.jpg
The last thing I want to do is ask my fans, friends and family to make some sort of charitable donation, but I feel I have no choice. As much I would like to save up the replacement costs over the next year, I cannot afford to be without a camera for that long because literally everything I do to make money involves a camera.
Without a camera, I pretty much can’t run a brand. I shoot the studio photos of the product, the portrait photos of people wearing the product and the videos showing people in motion with the product as well as creating general product promotion videos.
On top of my inability to promote the brand properly without a camera, there is now 1 angle less at every single trick that I witness and do myself. Literally every single time I go out filming with a crew, I make it a point to use my camera(s) to film someone else or myself in some sort of way that will be beneficial.
Had I have not had so much bad luck this summer, this incident may have been felt a little less severely in terms of finances. I received a major pay cut from a sponsor I am no longer with in June, came home to my iMac screen shattered on the floor after X-Games in the beginning of July ($3500 replacement) and had the pleasure of paying to have a payment gateway problem on The Trip Website fixed. That problem allowed 2 kids from somehwere in Central/South America to use stolen credit card information to charge $12,000 worth of merchandise that had to be refunded and ended up costing The Trip around $1000 worth of products + shipping charges before I relaized the transactions were fraudulent (no ones info was stolen from TheTripped.com- the cards they used were obtained from various websites across the web).
To sum things up, I don’t expect to have my entire setup paid for. What I’m asking for is help getting half-way. To be frank, taking on any amount of debt right now is very uncomfortable, but I’m going to have to do what I have to do to make sure I can continue shooting, and sharing, the best footage possible. I understand people deal with these sorts of real-life situations all of the time and many of you probably have your own financial issues at the moment so please do not think that I EXPECT this of any of you. Having lots of finanical issues hit at the same time has really put me beside myself and given me a stern reminder of how fast things can flip upside down.
Contributions of any amount are very appreicated. Thank you very much in advance.
Upon walking up to my car, I was instantly filled with fear as I thought my window was left open by mistake. When I got closer, my heart dropped as I realized what had happened- my car window was smashed in and I got robbed.
Realizing how fast you can become a victim of such a dramatic crime has been very unsettling to me the last few days. As I call Pawn shops and warn camera shops that have trade-in policies/used equipment departments to keep an eye out for these items, it has begun to really settle in how much of a loss this equipment is to me.
As many of you know, I do a fair amount of Photo and Video work. Pretty much every piece of media you see from The Trip Apparel comes from my cameras. I have been passionate about filming and photography for the last 12 years and have invested thousands of dollars into lenses and different camera bodies/accessories.
I have also contributed a lot of footage to several of your favorite videos. Anytime one of my friends needs something filmed and I have the right camera for their specific project, I will always film with no questions asked. The only “compensation” I’ve ever received from filming came from TripTape sales and those pretty much covered the cost of what I put into the video. Most of what I film is simply for the passion of filming and helping make BMX videos look the way I think they should.
On top of the work I do using my cameras/equipment, that equipment is also very often times used to film the footage in my own video parts.
Over the past couple years filming for TripTape, I began to build an HD setup I felt was worthy of investing the time and money it takes to build a respectable kit. Filming an entire video in Standard Definition had me itching to switch to and HD setup once the project was done.
Since TripTape's release, I have been getting ready to transition Trip’s media outlets to Full HD and have spent most of the summer learning how to use my cameras/new equipment better. I also made a couple recent equipment upgrades including a Gimbal Stabilizer and a wider lens with Image Stabilization specifically for shooting on the Gimbal. Upgrades that cost me $1650 no less.
I also decided to finance a new computer rather than repalcing my 2012 model iMac (screen broke- more on that later) in support of working with only HD footage and eventually upgrading to a 4k set up after a year or so of getting used to shooting with the gimbal and full HD.
Now I'm stuck paying off a high-speed computer for the next 2 years and have no camera!
My car insurance is going to pay for the “luggage stolen up to $200”. My camera bag was $230, so they will be paying for $200 of that and nothing else.
The deductible for my policy is $500 per claim, so I will have to pay at least that amount toward the repair of my car window and the damages associated with the break-in.
The current retail value of what was stolen adds up to $6854.78 (link to detailed list-http://imageshack.com/a/img924/484/by8mVC.jpg ).
To replace this setup, I have been doing a lot of research into what is the best thing to get for a similar price range with more modern technology (i.e. 4k, 1080/60p, autofocus while recording video, etc).
For those of you interested what you woul be donating towards, here are a couple of builds that I am currently interested in replacing my stolen gear with:
A7Sii
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/2927/7r7h8v.jpg
GH5
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/8703/UEhJEY.jpg
The last thing I want to do is ask my fans, friends and family to make some sort of charitable donation, but I feel I have no choice. As much I would like to save up the replacement costs over the next year, I cannot afford to be without a camera for that long because literally everything I do to make money involves a camera.
Without a camera, I pretty much can’t run a brand. I shoot the studio photos of the product, the portrait photos of people wearing the product and the videos showing people in motion with the product as well as creating general product promotion videos.
On top of my inability to promote the brand properly without a camera, there is now 1 angle less at every single trick that I witness and do myself. Literally every single time I go out filming with a crew, I make it a point to use my camera(s) to film someone else or myself in some sort of way that will be beneficial.
Had I have not had so much bad luck this summer, this incident may have been felt a little less severely in terms of finances. I received a major pay cut from a sponsor I am no longer with in June, came home to my iMac screen shattered on the floor after X-Games in the beginning of July ($3500 replacement) and had the pleasure of paying to have a payment gateway problem on The Trip Website fixed. That problem allowed 2 kids from somehwere in Central/South America to use stolen credit card information to charge $12,000 worth of merchandise that had to be refunded and ended up costing The Trip around $1000 worth of products + shipping charges before I relaized the transactions were fraudulent (no ones info was stolen from TheTripped.com- the cards they used were obtained from various websites across the web).
To sum things up, I don’t expect to have my entire setup paid for. What I’m asking for is help getting half-way. To be frank, taking on any amount of debt right now is very uncomfortable, but I’m going to have to do what I have to do to make sure I can continue shooting, and sharing, the best footage possible. I understand people deal with these sorts of real-life situations all of the time and many of you probably have your own financial issues at the moment so please do not think that I EXPECT this of any of you. Having lots of finanical issues hit at the same time has really put me beside myself and given me a stern reminder of how fast things can flip upside down.
Contributions of any amount are very appreicated. Thank you very much in advance.
Organizer
Ty Morrow
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
