Thank you for visiting! This campaign's objective is to raise funds to purchase a new compact zoom camera and a laptop computer for Rehman (better known as Roy outside Wikimedia).
Roy is a renewable energy enthusiast, who is currently involved in an IPP renewable energy project in Sri Lanka. Among other topics, he contributes to the English Wikipedia and the free media repository Wikimedia Commons on energy-related subjects by creating encyclopedic articles and uploading photos of dams, wind farms, power stations and electrical infrastructures, as well as a number of aerial shots of landscapes, mountains, rivers, and popular landmarks in and out of Sri Lanka. Roy's photos were viewed 1.28 million times in January 2016 alone (human-only, article namespace).
Sri Lanka is a 65,600 km² island-nation, immediately south of India. Its energy demands are met by large hydroelectric facilities (dams), thermal power stations, and over 15 wind farms, among other sources. Sri Lanka is extremely rich in biodiversity and natural resources.
Objective 1 — hand-held zoom camera ($600):
The main goal is to purchase a mid-range hand-held zoom camera, with priority on portability and zooming. Roy's current photographic gear includes:
With the above gear, Roy was able to upload a number of high quality photos to Wikimedia Commons, for use in articles across multiple Wikipedia projects.
At present, the current plan is to upgrade to a Canon SX60 HS, but this depends on budget and availability in Sri Lanka. The Canon SX60 is quite portable and has a 65x optical zoom, compared to the 42x of Roy's SX520, which is quite good for aerial shots and photos taken from a distance. It is a necessity as most electrical infrastructure in Sri Lanka is off-limits to the general public.
Objective 2 — laptop computer ($1,000-$1,500):
Since 2012, Roy has owned a relatively high-end desktop computer, used mostly for editing Wikipedia, processing photos, leisure, and for working on his current renewable energy project. With an i7-3770, Asus P8Z77, HyperX SSD and RAM, and a Geforce 660Ti, it is quite powerful, at least in 2012 standards. Unfortunately, the desktop computer's hardware is now glitchy and unstable due to prolonged exposure to bad power quality and the tropical/humid environment.
As part of Objective 2, Roy plans to move from the desktop environment to a laptop computer for improved portability. This would remove the restriction of having to be at the home desk to contribute/upload, which is a significant constraint. This would also enable a much more stable and less buggy work platform, which is something that is gradually becoming more important.
A new computer and a better camera always seemed a bit of a far fetched idea, but this campaign by fellow Wikimedian Jeevan (contributor of high quality macro photos) in March 2015, gave the organisers of this campaign some new hopes.
Your support would enable Roy to capture and deliver free high quality photos and content on Sri Lanka's natural landscape and electrical infrastructure for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere on the internet, by anyone, at no cost.
Thank you.