dr.tikimojo's camera equipment stolen - 1300 photos of tiki oasis gone forever! - General Tiki

D Dr.TikiMojo Tiki Socialite Elk Grove, CA Joined: May 26, 2006 Posts: 487	D Dr.TikiMojo Posted posted on Thu, Aug 23, 2007 2:53 AM Why you will not be seeing any of the photos of Tiki Oasis 7 by Dr.TikiMojo The Short Answer: My Car window was smashed in and ALL my camera equipment was stolen! The FULL Story: After working double duty at Tiki Oasis 7 as both a vendor, (TIKI HUNTER), and the “OFFICIAL” Tiki Oasis Photographer I put in 4 days of work at nearly 14 hours plus per day. I shot over 1300 photos including nearly, (if not all), the bands, costume contest, lectures, dealers, parties and some of my best candids ever! (My favorites CocoLoco and 4 other lovely ladies all in colorful dresses posing on a bed just for ME and the infamous Crazy Al Cheez Wiz attack shot at The Cult of the Eye room!) While still fun, by the end of the convention Mrs.Mojo and myself were EXHAUSTED! Sunday evening we started our drive back up north until exhaustion forced us to stop for the night in Ventura at a La Quinta Inn around 2 AM. Around 7 AM Monday morning our hotel room phone started ringing, it was the hotel manager, the police were outside and needed us down at our car to report a break in! I went down stairs to the car feeling my feet growing heavier with each step. When I reached the car the rear passenger side window had been smashed in, some boxes where out of place and ‘something’ was missing. That’s when my knees went weak, and bile rose from my stomach...... my camera bag and ALL it’s contents were missing! It came like the news of a death of a friend, the memories flooded in of all the places we’d been together around the country, Ireland on bicycle, across Scotland and England, living in the temples in Taiwan, all the photos I was already committed to take and how I would do it, all of the hard work and saving and YEARS it took to put together such nice equipment! As the police officer asked for all the detailed information on the contents of the camera bag and their approximate values the bile began to rise again, a pro Nikon camera body, 4 high end lenses, a brand new top of the line Nikon Flash, my Nikon Coolwalker 40Gig Digital Storage Viewer, (containing all the photos I downloaded each night when I returned to my hotel room), rechargeable batteries, chargers, cords, cables, mini portable tape recorder, Lowepro Slingshot 300AW Camera Bag, and hundreds of dollars worth of miscellaneous pro filters. Total retail value of the loss between $8,000 to $10,000 plus the $250 to replace the broken glass and $40 to rent a car for the day so we didn’t have to sit and watch the Tiki Cruiser being torn apart and dwelling on the loss. By the time I can replace the equipment the losses of revenue and equipment I may have yet to account for may exceed $20,000......this on the heels of $4,300 worth of car repairs just before we left for Oasis! If there is any part of this to be referred as, “a positive side”, they didn’t steal the entire Tiki Cruiser and Eva/Mrs.Mojo has been my “photographer in training” recently, she managed to shoot about 150 photos of Tiki Oasis 7 which I will edit, work some PhotoShop magic on and have available. Also after spending the entire day Wednesday on the phone with the Ventura Police and my insurance agents it’s looking as though we MAY be able to make a claim for most of the equipment.......more on that later. To answer some obvious questions in advance: Why the Hell did you leave your camera in the car in the first place? Up until the end of Tiki Oasis the Tiki Cruiser was so full that we had the camera bags and our suitcase in the very back of the car. Every night when we stopped for the night we took in the suitcase and the camera bags. After Tiki Oasis we had sold enough that the Tiki Cruiser was less full. To try to see out the back window I slid my camera bag behind the headrest of the passenger seat. When we reached Ventura we where exhausted, it was late, the parking lot poorly lit, we hadn’t taken the bags out the car for 3 days and fell out of the ‘habit’, we left both bags and took the suitcase up, (the smaller camera bag was under Eva’s jacket and in back. It wasn't seen and is fine). We forgot them just that one time and it cost me! The other question: Didn't you have an ALARM SYSTEM on your car? No. I bought the Tiki Cruiser last year for a steal on ebay! For a 2002 vehicle it was about the most gutless, no frills car I've owned in at least 15 years! But it sure do look perty! Shortly after I got it the first thing I did was take to the place I had an alarm put on my wife's Honda Accord, (after the car stereo I gave her for Valentines day was stolen right in our driveway!) It has no POWER LOCKS and to put in a worthwhile car alarm they wanted to install power door locks at $350 per DOOR, plus the cost of the alarm system! Obviously, in hindsight, I wish I had done it then! Now I can't because of all the other financial losses! The Tiki Cruiser, (In background is the other car that was broken into) Mojo in a serious state of depression....no camera means no fun! To all my friends and family at Tiki Oasis 7 I am sorry that my carelessness has lost so many of our wonderful images from that weekend. So here's the equipment list since people are already sending me ads they've seem pop up! *NIKON D200 CAMERA BODY with a DELKIN efilm POP UP SHADE attached to the back, it had a Scandisk 2GB Extreme III CompactFlash card in the camera, a Nikon Strap with Yellow Duct Tape and a Nikon Hand Strap and an Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR II Autofocus Lens on the camera at the time. NIKON COOLWALKER PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICE -see previous photos Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR Autofocus Lens (Vibration Reduction) Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D Fisheye AF Autofocus Lens Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8D Autofocus Lens Spare filter bag attached to the outside of my LOWEPRO SLINGSHOT 200AW CAMERA BAG SB-800 Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash About $1,000 worth of miscellaneous filters Spare batteries, rechargable batteries and chargers and a mini tape recorder. Here's the serial #'s of some of the equipment: NIKON D200 CAMERA BODY serial # 3038861 Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR II Autofocus Lens serial # 2016848 NIKON COOLWALKER PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICE serial # 40000389 SB-800 Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash serial # 2795800 Thanks for all the love and well wishes everyone! Mahalo!*** [ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 00:49 ] [ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 15:15 ] [ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 16:47 ]

Why you will not be seeing any of the photos of Tiki Oasis 7 by Dr.TikiMojo

The Short Answer: My Car window was smashed in and ALL my camera equipment was stolen!

The FULL Story: After working double duty at Tiki Oasis 7 as both a vendor, (TIKI HUNTER), and the “OFFICIAL” Tiki Oasis Photographer I put in 4 days of work at nearly 14 hours plus per day. I shot over 1300 photos including nearly, (if not all), the bands, costume contest, lectures, dealers, parties and some of my best candids ever! (My favorites CocoLoco and 4 other lovely ladies all in colorful dresses posing on a bed just for ME and the infamous Crazy Al Cheez Wiz attack shot at The Cult of the Eye room!)
While still fun, by the end of the convention Mrs.Mojo and myself were EXHAUSTED!
Sunday evening we started our drive back up north until exhaustion forced us to stop for the night in Ventura at a La Quinta Inn around 2 AM. Around 7 AM Monday morning our hotel room phone started ringing, it was the hotel manager, the police were outside and needed us down at our car to report a break in! I went down stairs to the car feeling my feet growing heavier with each step. When I reached the car the rear passenger side window had been smashed in, some boxes where out of place and ‘something’ was missing. That’s when my knees went weak, and bile rose from my stomach...... my camera bag and ALL it’s contents were missing! It came like the news of a death of a friend, the memories flooded in of all the places we’d been together around the country, Ireland on bicycle, across Scotland and England, living in the temples in Taiwan, all the photos I was already committed to take and how I would do it, all of the hard work and saving and YEARS it took to put together such nice equipment!
As the police officer asked for all the detailed information on the contents of the camera bag and their approximate values the bile began to rise again, a pro Nikon camera body, 4 high end lenses, a brand new top of the line Nikon Flash, my Nikon Coolwalker 40Gig Digital Storage Viewer, (containing all the photos I downloaded each night when I returned to my hotel room), rechargeable batteries, chargers, cords, cables, mini portable tape recorder, Lowepro Slingshot 300AW Camera Bag, and hundreds of dollars worth of miscellaneous pro filters. Total retail value of the loss between $8,000 to $10,000 plus the $250 to replace the broken glass and $40 to rent a car for the day so we didn’t have to sit and watch the Tiki Cruiser being torn apart and dwelling on the loss. By the time I can replace the equipment the losses of revenue and equipment I may have yet to account for may exceed $20,000......this on the heels of $4,300 worth of car repairs just before we left for Oasis!

If there is any part of this to be referred as, “a positive side”, they didn’t steal the entire Tiki Cruiser and Eva/Mrs.Mojo has been my “photographer in training” recently, she managed to shoot about 150 photos of Tiki Oasis 7 which I will edit, work some PhotoShop magic on and have available. Also after spending the entire day Wednesday on the phone with the Ventura Police and my insurance agents it’s looking as though we MAY be able to make a claim for most of the equipment.......more on that later.

To answer some obvious questions in advance:
Why the Hell did you leave your camera in the car in the first place?

Up until the end of Tiki Oasis the Tiki Cruiser was so full that we had the camera bags and our suitcase in the very back of the car. Every night when we stopped for the night we took in the suitcase and the camera bags. After Tiki Oasis we had sold enough that the Tiki Cruiser was less full. To try to see out the back window I slid my camera bag behind the headrest of the passenger seat. When we reached Ventura we where exhausted, it was late, the parking lot poorly lit, we hadn’t taken the bags out the car for 3 days and fell out of the ‘habit’, we left both bags and took the suitcase up, (the smaller camera bag was under Eva’s jacket and in back. It wasn't seen and is fine). We forgot them just that one time and it cost me!

The other question:
Didn't you have an ALARM SYSTEM on your car?
No. I bought the Tiki Cruiser last year for a steal on ebay! For a 2002 vehicle it was about the most gutless, no frills car I've owned in at least 15 years! But it sure do look perty! Shortly after I got it the first thing I did was take to the place I had an alarm put on my wife's Honda Accord, (after the car stereo I gave her for Valentines day was stolen right in our driveway!) It has no POWER LOCKS and to put in a worthwhile car alarm they wanted to install power door locks at $350 per DOOR, plus the cost of the alarm system! Obviously, in hindsight, I wish I had done it then! Now I can't because of all the other financial losses!

The Tiki Cruiser, (In background is the other car that was broken into)

Mojo in a serious state of depression....no camera means no fun!

To all my friends and family at Tiki Oasis 7 I am sorry that my carelessness has lost so many of our wonderful images from that weekend.

So here's the equipment list since people are already sending me ads they've seem pop up!

**NIKON D200 CAMERA BODY with a DELKIN efilm POP UP SHADE attached to the back, it had a Scandisk 2GB Extreme III CompactFlash card in the camera, a Nikon Strap with Yellow Duct Tape and a Nikon Hand Strap and an Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR II Autofocus Lens on the camera at the time.

NIKON COOLWALKER PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICE -see previous photos

Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR Autofocus Lens (Vibration Reduction)

Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D Fisheye AF Autofocus Lens

Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8D Autofocus Lens

Spare filter bag attached to the outside of my LOWEPRO SLINGSHOT 200AW CAMERA BAG

SB-800 Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash

About $1,000 worth of miscellaneous filters

Spare batteries, rechargable batteries and chargers

and a mini tape recorder.

*Here's the serial #'s of some of the equipment:

NIKON D200 CAMERA BODY serial # 3038861

Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR II Autofocus Lens serial # 2016848

NIKON COOLWALKER PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICE serial # 40000389

SB-800 Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash serial # 2795800

Thanks for all the love and well wishes everyone! Mahalo!***

[ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 00:49 ]

[ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 15:15 ]

[ Edited by: Dr.TikiMojo 2007-08-24 16:47 ]

Post #327598 by Dr.TikiMojo on Thu, Aug 23, 2007 2:53 AM