Working as an NGO Photographer Covering Leprosy Elimination for WHO in Cambodia
After a successful collaboration with WHO last year, it was great to be asked to work as a documentary photographer to produce another photo essay as part of their People of the Western Pacific Series.
The brief was to produce 25 photos to tell the story of Visal and the invaluable work that he does in eliminating leprosy from Cambodia.
Visal works for the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control, under the Ministry of Health, and has been instrumental in implementing the National Programme for Leprosy Elimination.
Visal is dedicated and passionate about his work and even faced discrimination from his own family. They asked him not to visit his home town before he educated them about how easily treatable the disease is.
I spent a day taking photos of Visal as he worked in the community.
I photographed Visal conducting a training session, speaking to the local health authorities to explain their activities and conducting screening in the community.
At the end of the day, we visited a couple who both had leprosy and suffered disabilities as a result.
Visal’s work has helped to reduce the stigma within their community and he’s helped them to establish a chicken husbandry business that helps them to be financially independent.
Visal has also been instrumental in establishing networks using social media to help identify new cases. This has been very effective, particularly when working with people from remote areas, which is where most new cases are detected.
Leprosy is easily treatable and can be eliminated from Cambodia.
Due to the hard work of people like Visal, there are very few new leprosy cases in Cambodia and by educating people, their work has helped to reduce the stigma.
I wish them luck in achieving their goal.
You can see more of my photography work for WHO here. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any NGO photography projects you would like to discuss.
On Assignment for WHO - Directing 4 Videos About their Social Prescribing Campaign
I was commissioned by the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office to direct 4 videos about their Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging programme in Cambodia to form part of their training toolkit. The toolkit provides implementing partners with an overview of the best practices of how implement social prescribing at the community level.
The Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging programme is a way for healthcare workers to connect people to a range of non-clinical services in the community and to help the elderly not feel anxiety, loneliness or depression.
The toolkit is designed for policy makers and community health centres to help them run effective social prescribing schemes.
The brief was to make 4 videos to highlight the key aspects of successfully implementing social prescribing schemes.
The first video (above) features Dr Kao Sovandara, a lecturer at The Royal University of Phnom Penh and part of the lead team implementing social prescribing in Cambodia. He gives an overview of the programme, the training they provide and how that works at a grassroots level.
The second video features Yem Sameoun, who is a commune councillor responsible for running the scheme in her community. She talks about the training she receives, the work she does in the community and the positive outcomes.
The third video features Nget Krin, an elderly community member. She talks about the situation she faces, the support she receives and how that makes her feel.
The fourth video features Dr Khan Sareth, a lecturer at The Royal University of Phnom Penh and part of the lead team implementing social prescribing in Cambodia. He gives an overview of what they’ve achieved and reflects on how the scheme can be improved in the future.
While the project is intrinsically nebulous in nature, I hope it can have an impact in Cambodia, regionally and in the rest of the world. As the world’s population is aging, it’s increasingly important to make sure everyone feels included within their communities.
Working as a Lighting Camera Operator on a Corporate Shoot for Advertainment Media
Jordan, the head of production for Advertainment Media, got in touch with me through my website about working as a lighting camera operator and recording sound for a series of corporate interviews they wanted to shoot for FFNews Show, which they produce.
It was great working with a production company with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. The process was straightforward: I was provided with a sample video and we discussed the technical requirements of the shoot and the equipment needed.
Taylor, the producer, did a great job of providing call sheets and securing the locations, which allowed my team to fully focus on our job.
We filmed the interviews at some of the leading financial institutions in Cambodia. The scheduling gave us time to arrive in advance to prepare the locations and set up lighting, cameras and sound before the talent arrived.
We went with a 3 camera set up (1x Sony a7siii and 2x Sony a7ivs), to give us a wide and a close up of both Douglas, the presenter. and the interviewee, 2 x Aputure LS 300D II lights and a radio mic each, with a backup in case there were any interviews with 2 people at the same time.
Below are a few behind the scenes photos Taylor kindly took:
Below are 2 more episodes Advertainment Media edited from the shoot. They were happy with the final results. It’s always good to see the final product when someone else has done a good job with the edit.
You can see more examples of my work as a lighting camera operator here.
On Location - Taking Commercial Drone Interior and Exterior Photos for Endo Lighting
During pre-production on a corporate video for Endo Lighting to show their lighting installation at AEON 3, the client requested some drone photography to use on their website.
While Simon Toffanello was doing the photography for them, it made sense for me to take the drone photographs as I would be operating a drone for video I was shooting.
Endo Lighting requested a series of exterior and interior drone shots to show the building and their lighting installation.
The exterior drone photographs were taken with a Mavic 2 Pro. They were taken at dusk so the photo gives the impression of it being dark will retaining detail in the background and reducing the noise due to there still being a bit of ambient light.
Due to the height restriction on the Mavic 2 Pro, I hired a Mini 3 Pro, which is a lighter drone that is better designed to fly indoors.
You can see the corporate corporate video I made for them here and check out other examples of my drone photography here. As predominantly a videographer, I mainly use the drone to shoot video and take photographs as an afterthought. It would be great to make more of an effort to explore the creative potential of drone photography.
On Location - Filming a Corporate Video for Endo Lighting
It was great to team up with Khreativa Cambodia to work on a corporate video for Endo Lighting to showcase their lighting installations at the newly opened AEON 3 Mall in Phnom Penh.
Endo Lighting commissioned Khreativa Cambodia to provide a series of photos and a video and I was fortunate to be given the lead on the video production.
After a pre-production meeting and looking at the sample videos provided by the client, we decided on the techniques and equipment that we would use to capture the feeling of entering the mall and experiencing the different moods created by the coloured lighting throughout the day.
For the exteriors, I used my DJI Mavic 2 Pro due to its low-light capabilities, as some of the shots were taken at dusk, and stability in wind.
The client also wanted interior drone shots to show the Skywalk and to fly up the central atrium to show the different lighting atmospheres they created on different levels.
As the Mavic 2 has height restrictions when it can’t use enough GPS satellites, we had to hire a Mini 3 Pro to be able to capture the interior drone shots.
For the ground shots, I used a gimbal at eye level and a gimbal mounted on a boom to capture higher shots for a different perspective. A wireless transmitter was mounted to the set up so that we could monitor the feed and an assistant could remotely control tilts to add dynamism.
Endo Lighting were very happy with the video and even entered it into a corporate video competition!
You can see other examples of my corporate videos here and here.