New York NYC RFF Meet-up wants to help fellow RFF member Phil_F_NM

Well said sparrow6224. It all came from the heart, and hopefully, we never find ourselves staring at a busted door lock and a ransacked apartment/house.

This guy John is one in a thousand. Let's all appreciate what he did here.



And Phil_F_NM- Thank God he didn't get your Leica and SP, because then your on your own buddy! ;)
 
sparrow6224 said:
To Phil: We (RFF, that is; not I, as I got home too late) have all pitched in to help replace the camera(s) / lenses that were stolen, not because you're Henri Cartier Bresson of Nikon DX digital but because you're one of us. We decide whether you're worthy, not you, and clearly we decided. No one sold his first-born here, everybody chipped in a little, it appears almost all on the painless side, because we all feel closer, safer, more buoyed when we can help one of our own. It is truly harder to receive than to give, I'll grant you; but your worthiness and future approaches to photography are not beholden to what was, for RFF folks, an act that helped bind us all more closely together. You're part of the group and the part you play in strengthening us all is to take the offer and not force John through three hours of work trying to figure out how to give it all back. You want my advice, (of course you do) the D2xs and a used Tamron 17-50/2.8, putatively quite competitive with the Nikon, smaller and much cheaper , along with the donated equipment, and you're back in business. If you choose a year from now to go a different direction, or even a month from now, pay it forward somehow. We ALL benefit from this process. This is what community means, at its best and least repressive. All best of luck to you and God bless.
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I second this. I also think that if you wish to get something for Jane, you should go for it. While one can never replace what is lost, you can get closer to whole. Whatever you choose will be the right choice...
 
sparrow6224 said:
To Phil: We (RFF, that is; not I, as I got home too late) have all pitched in to help replace the camera(s) / lenses that were stolen, not because you're Henri Cartier Bresson of Nikon DX digital but because you're one of us. We decide whether you're worthy, not you, and clearly we decided. No one sold his first-born here, everybody chipped in a little, it appears almost all on the painless side, because we all feel closer, safer, more buoyed when we can help one of our own. It is truly harder to receive than to give, I'll grant you; but your worthiness and future approaches to photography are not beholden to what was, for RFF folks, an act that helped bind us all more closely together. You're part of the group and the part you play in strengthening us all is to take the offer and not force John through three hours of work trying to figure out how to give it all back. You want my advice, (of course you do) the D2xs and a used Tamron 17-50/2.8, putatively quite competitive with the Nikon, smaller and much cheaper , along with the donated equipment, and you're back in business. If you choose a year from now to go a different direction, or even a month from now, pay it forward somehow. We ALL benefit from this process. This is what community means, at its best and least repressive. All best of luck to you and God bless.
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Simply beautiful. Well said.
 
Hey Phil - I am sure most of us agree, whatever you decide to do with the funds is up to you. No strings attached. I suspect most gave as much out of principal and many more will want to still contribute.

You & your girlfriend's lives were shaken by a thief, the lowest level of humanity but hopefully restored by a community of people. Good trumped evil.

Here's to the good guys.
 
Phil, good luck and enjoy. Life does not always suck and not everyone is a thief. Someday you will be given the opportunity to help someone else. When it happens don't forget today.
 
Phil,

When something like that awful burglary happens and you have to reconsider what you're doing, it would cross anybody's mind to see it as a sign. I'm confident it would cross my mind too!

Why not take this RFF collection as a sign too? Accept it, see what job you can land with it (with your updated views on the things you would or would not like to do) and if that doesn't turn out right, simply pass that gift on to somebody else in this or some other form. Maybe get a Pentax for your roommate Jane?

Like Vince said, it's easier to give than to receive. Personally, I put my trust in you to do what helps you, in any way. Because thats what it's about, helping a fellow RFF'er!

Good luck!
 
Folks, I want to thank you all again for this. It's amazing, really.
Last night I got the gist of the thread then wrote that long email to John and posted it here after.

Concerning the gear itself, the D2HS was the camera I was carrying all over the place with a manual focus lens on it. I still have my MF Nikkors and I think a D2HS is the way I want to go if that's ok with the group. Right now I have two 50mm's and a 200mm lens. I'll be looking for another ~14-15mm to give me something close to my beloved field of view that a 21mm gives.

The D2x is an amazing camera but I found that for working for an online-only publication, the files of the 4.1MP camera were perfect. I could shoot RAW+jpg and load the jpgs straight up to the server really quickly from a remote location with wifi while the D2x files were quite large and needed some pp work to size them right for the web. If I can go back to doing some gigs for them, the D2hs is what I'd want to shoot with. Add to that the fun factor of shooting true IR as I've mentioned in other threads. I even thought about buying a friend's M8 for this reason (this is definitely a possibility too...) and the fact that I'm pretty quick on the draw when using a rangefinder while an SLR I'm still learning.

I have two chargers and one spare battery. One 4GB card left which is enough for that camera.

Joe (Back Alley,) my old Lowepro bag was the thing that the perp used to load up all the gear into and walk down the street with, so eventually, I'll need a bag. That was a bag I special ordered from a camera shop sadly no longer in business, took to Guam for a deployment, took on field exercises, gas chamber drills, the Iraq deployment then everywhere since. It was a sentimental loss too but whatever the folks here provide will have a story to tell as well.

You are all so very generous, I can't believe it. When I get into the position to do so, I will have to print some photos and mail them to you, or drive out across the country (world) to hand deliver them.

Now that John shut off the donations, if any of you want to donate to me, please donate to http://www.operationsmile.org/. I was born with cleft-lip and palate, and without the doctors who performed on me, gratis ( then eventually started this charity under its current name,) I may not be alive. The mortality rate for kids with C-L/P is higher at a very young age due to the risk of severe infection and meningitis. Most of us have profound hearing loss from infections (mine is from 122mm rockets among other things.) Anyway, without folks like yourselves giving to groups like this, there would be far fewer kids in the world living past their adolescent years.

This is still a ton to process for me. Thank you all so very much.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Now that John shut off the donations, if any of you want to donate to me, please donate to http://www.operationsmile.org/. I was born with cleft-lip and palate, and without the doctors who performed on me, gratis ( then eventually started this charity under its current name,) I may not be alive. The mortality rate for kids with C-L/P is higher at a very young age due to the risk of severe infection and meningitis. Most of us have profound hearing loss from infections (mine is from 122mm rockets among other things.) Anyway, without folks like yourselves giving to groups like this, there would be far fewer kids in the world living past their adolescent years.
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Phil, I hope you understand that shutting off donations had nothing to do with your response. We were thinking we wanted to get into the $700-800 range and we got to $1100... so I (we) thought this was enough to do what we wanted to do for you. For lack of better words, I didn't want to take advantage of the community by letting the donations get out of hand and into crazy numbers.

As far as donations to the aforementioned cause, that is a great idea.

Also, we have to discuss how you want to proceed. If the D2hs and lenses are the way you want to go, that is perfectly fine with us. :) You, me, Cal, and Pramodh can hit B&H or Adorama (or any other place that deals in used Nikon gear - any suggestions) and go on a shopping spree for you. If you want to replace your friends Pentax, than that is fine too (with me anyway). Or if you see something in an ad somewhere that meets what you want, I can send the cash there. If you want some Tri-X we can do that. Whatever you want to do... :)
 
Carterofmars said:
This guy John is one in a thousand. Let's all appreciate what he did here.
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Thanks for the kind words. However, this was a group effort that was discussed at the NYC RFF meet-up. Phamodh was the first to bring it up. I simply posted the thread and handled the donations. Also, the real heros are the people who gave Phil their warm wishes and those who contributed to the pot. :)
 
sparrow6224 said:
To Phil: We (RFF, that is; not I, as I got home too late) have all pitched in to help replace the camera(s) / lenses that were stolen, not because you're Henri Cartier Bresson of Nikon DX digital but because you're one of us. We decide whether you're worthy, not you, and clearly we decided. No one sold his first-born here, everybody chipped in a little, it appears almost all on the painless side, because we all feel closer, safer, more buoyed when we can help one of our own. It is truly harder to receive than to give, I'll grant you; but your worthiness and future approaches to photography are not beholden to what was, for RFF folks, an act that helped bind us all more closely together.
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Exactly... well said. Phil, the camera will be yours to use for whatever purpose you deem necessary.
 
sparrow6224 said:
To Phil: We (RFF, that is; not I, as I got home too late) have all pitched in to help replace the camera(s) / lenses that were stolen, not because you're Henri Cartier Bresson of Nikon DX digital but because you're one of us. We decide whether you're worthy, not you, and clearly we decided. No one sold his first-born here, everybody chipped in a little, it appears almost all on the painless side, because we all feel closer, safer, more buoyed when we can help one of our own. It is truly harder to receive than to give, I'll grant you; but your worthiness and future approaches to photography are not beholden to what was, for RFF folks, an act that helped bind us all more closely together. You're part of the group and the part you play in strengthening us all is to take the offer and not force John through three hours of work trying to figure out how to give it all back. You want my advice, (of course you do) the D2xs and a used Tamron 17-50/2.8, putatively quite competitive with the Nikon, smaller and much cheaper , along with the donated equipment, and you're back in business. If you choose a year from now to go a different direction, or even a month from now, pay it forward somehow. We ALL benefit from this process. This is what community means, at its best and least repressive. All best of luck to you and God bless.
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Totally agree!
 
I'm really uplifted by what happened here, partially by giving, but mostly by the responses of everyone on this thread. A burglary can be really destructive to one's mental state - I've been there, like lots of others - but at least some balance has been restored by the comments and donations in this forum. I think all of us here have had some balance restored, not just the immediate victim of the crime. Thanks to everyone for that.

Tom
 
This really made my day, I was happy to help make up - at least a little - for a wrong done to our friend.

Thanks again to John for setting it up, and here's hoping this is the start of better luck for Phil!

Randy
 
I am very deeply moved by this thread and the great response, and I am further touched by a PM that John forwarded from Phil.

The intent of this thread was to deaden the sense of loss, and offer support to our friend.

The twist here is out of all the gear that was stolen, the cameras that were lost were the ones that Phil needed to do free lance journalism, but Phil eloquently presented a case that this loss has been processed where his struggle to break into journalism might be abandoned, and in good faith he cannot feel right about accepting a camera or gear.

I have no problem donating a Nikon 28/2.8 AIS to help Phil recover from a loss. I want Phil to know that he has my support whatever he does with photography.

Anyways... How do we proceed? I for one would like to get Phil a kit to make up for his loss.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
I am very deeply moved by this thread and the great response, and I am further touched by a PM that John forwarded from Phil.

The intent of this thread was to deaden the sense of loss, and offer support to our friend.

The twist here is out of all the gear that was stolen, the cameras that were lost were the ones that Phil needed to do free lance journalism, but Phil eloquently presented a case that this loss has been processed where his struggle to break into journalism might be abandoned, and in good faith he cannot feel right about accepting a camera or gear.

I have no problem donating a Nikon 28/2.8 AIS to help Phil recover from a loss. I want Phil to know that he has my support whatever he does with photography.

Anyways... How do we proceed? I for one would like to get Phil a kit to make up for his loss.

Cal
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I obviously can't speak for Phil, but I suspect right now he is still a little in shock over all this, and moreover that he needs to have his options open as to work opportunities. So yes, I think his kit needs to be restored as much as possible. Somewhere above I thought a decision was made as the the camera body to opt for?

Randy
 
Yes, it appears Phil would like a D2hs and a 14-15mm lens. If he's cool with this, we will proceed. I'd like him to be involved.
 
zauhar said:
I obviously can't speak for Phil, but I suspect right now he is still a little in shock over all this, and moreover that he needs to have his options open as to work opportunities. So yes, I think his kit needs to be restored as much as possible. Somewhere above I thought a decision was made as the the camera body to opt for?

Randy
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Thanks Randy. I'm such a slow writer that my response lags the outpouring of support.

It's really great that we have such a community.

Cal
 
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