NGO Photographer in Siem Reap | On Assignment for Kiva

It was a great opportunity to work as a photographer and videographer with international NGO Kiva in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I spent two days photographing and filming a series of case studies about people who have taken out loans offered by Kiva to buy a cooking stove made by the social enterprise ACE. It was my first job through Storyhunter and will hopefully be the first of many.

The ACE stove is a great invention. It’s very efficient and within no time at all after turning the stove on and adding the biomass fuel there is a roaring fire that is hot enough to cook rice, stir fries and soups. The stove comes with a solar panel, so it perfect for people living off grid. It also has a USB port so it can be used to charge phones and other battery-powered electric devices and it’s smoke-less, so it’s a cheaper, quicker and healthier alternative to using charcoal which is commonly used in Cambodia.

It’s great to see how such a seemingly small thing can help improve people’s finances, save them time (if they collected fire wood) and contribute to improving their lives. The kind hospitality of the Khmer people is second-to-none. Everyone of the people we filmed and photographed invited us into their homes with open arms, were patient and had a good laugh. It really is one thing about Cambodia that makes the job easy, rewarding and fun.

Below are a selection of images from the couple of days I spent filming case studies and taking photos. You can see more examples of my work as an NGO photographer here and here.

Aerial Drone Photography of salt flats in Tamil Nadu, India

Looking back through the archives, I found some drone photography of the salt flats outside Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. I was lucky enough to get to travel there while working as a videographer for Wild Frontiers. I like the lines and the geometrical shapes of the salt flats when seen from above.

I often use the drone to shoot video and take photographs as a afterthought. I plan to spend more time looking at the creative possibilities and using drone to focus solely on aerial photography.

360º aerial video and photo panoramas for Rulai

Golden Tower 322

Golden Tower 322 40th Floor

Golden Tower 322 40th Floor

Golden Tower 322 30th Floor

Golden Tower 322 30th Floor

Golden Tower 322 20th Floor

Golden Tower 322 20th Floor

Golden Tower 322 10th Floor

Golden Tower 322 10th Floor

Tower 282

Tower 282 40th Floor

Tower 282 40th Floor

Tower 282 30th Floor

Tower 282 30th Floor

Tower 282 20th Floor

Tower 282 20th Floor

Tower 282 10th Floor

Tower 282 10th Floor

I was commissioned by Rulai to shoot 8 video and 8 360º photo panoramas of 2 condos that are being built in BKK1, Phnom Penh.

I used a drone to photograph the images at the exact height of the 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th floors to show prospective clients the view they will have, before the condo has been built.

I stitched the images together, lined all the images up so they had the same centre point, made all the images the same size, cloned in sections that were missing  and colour graded all the images. 

 It would be great to do more this kind of project. I’m also interested in mounting a 360º camera to the drone and shooting VR video from the skies.