Solomon Islands Surgical Outreach Video Project

Hi,

I'm a photographer based in New Zealand(www.unseenperspective.co.nz) and had the honour, back in 2016, to volunteer with an organisation called Interplast. They help support and finance surgical & rehabilitation teams that travel to developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region to treat patients and teach medical personnel.

The following link, to their website, is a story from that trip: ( https://www.interplast.org.au/lives-transformed-solomon-islands-support-rotary/ ) - I'm the one in the middle of the group photo at the bottom of the page and my wife is on my left.

My wife is an Occupational Therapist specialised in Hand Therapy and has experience in burns. She was invited to join the team to teach local OT's and Physiotherapists as well as help treat patients. All of her expenses were covered, which meant all we needed to pay for were my flights, as we shared a room. It was a trip I'll never forget. I got to witness some life changing moments for so many children and a number of adults.

The photographs and video material I take is used to help raise awareness of what Interplast is doing  and hopefully garner further donations to help them fund continued surgical teams to the Solomon's and other countries in need. The following link ( https://youtu.be/i8slWDjWYbA ) is a short story I videoed of a boy named Rockson, with  his Mum and Zac the plastics surgeon.

This year we are going again on the 7th of August and I was asked if I'd like to join the team to photograph and video some precious moments. It is such an honour and privilege that my wife and I paid for my return flights and I've been preparing for the trip. It was then that I started wondering about better video gear...

I am predominantly a photographer and haven't had much to do with video, but managed to capture some special interview moments with Zac and his patients on the last trip. The gear I had was rather basic and so I thought this time it would be helpful to get some videoing gear to make it easier and get better quality.

I would like to get:

A Manfrotto Camera Shoulder Rig ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqk2O6A4YKM ) to attach my current camera and lens on to. It helps with holding such a heavy weight up for long periods of time and comes with a focusing & start/stop controller on the right handle as seen in the picture.

A field monitor in order to have a larger screen to view for focus pulling. I'm looking into the Manfrotto Digital Director as I already have an Ipad Air 2 and it works with Canon.

A good microphone to attach to the camera for better sound.  And possibly a wireless microphone set.

A swivel arm for the field monitor.

Good lighting - the wards are quite dark

V-Lock or V-Mount battery pack - a special battery pack to power everything for longer periods rather than separate batteries for everything.

Please note that I will get to keep all the gear for my own use post trip. However, I hope to go on future trips to the Solomon's and possibly do other volunteer work locally and internationally.

Any amount raised that is not used for gear or if more money than requested is received/raised it will be donated to Interplast.

I'm asking for financial help because my wife and I have already used some of our savings to pay for flights.

Please join with us to help get the word out. The smallest donation can go a long way, any amount you're able to offer would be so gratefully appreciated.

Baron