Cameron Davidson

Yesterday afternoon, I shot aerials of a project in the Nevada desert. After the first section of the shoot was completed, the pilot and I headed to downtown Las Vegas to shoot a few images for a book I am working on and to fill out the stock library.

The Las Vegas strip is a busy place –– on the ground and seven-hundred feet above the glow. Last evening there were three photo missions going on at the same time. Two B model Eurocopters, one with a FLIR ball on the nose and the R-44 I chartered. The controllers at McCarran did an excellent job of keeping us separated. All of a sudden at dusk, twelve Eurocopters in a pulsing line of landing lights, returned to Las Vegas from a day of Grand Canyon tours.

I’ve never seen so many commercial helicopters in one Class B airspace all converging to a single landing area. The controllers at McCarran did an excellent job of spacing and flow amongst the three photo/video shoots. It was quite impressive to see.

Just finished an amazing aerial still and video shoot in central Utah. Morning started off bone cold and the further north we flew into the valley we were shooting, the more the temps dropped. Temperature at the heliport was in the low forties, on location it was 33 with a nice 9 knot wind that jumped up to 15 knots when the sun broke the horizon. Can not show the pics yet, but the light was incredible, a mixture of hard crisp morning sunshine with a high layer of cirrus to diffuse the light into patterns of dark and brightness.

The evening before the shoot, I scouted a location that is a Utah state park near St. George. Snow Canyon is a small park with a lovely drive and plenty of trails to explore. The red rock cliffs are impressive. Well worth a side trip if you are visiting Zion or southern Utah.

http://www.photoshelter.com/c/cameron/gallery/Aerial-Port-au-Prince-Haiti/G0000Q4Cp5ZMAfu4/

This evening I uploaded two new galleries to my portfolio site – Port au Prince Aerials and Rural Medical. The aerial images of destruction in Port Au Prince will be available through Corbis within the next few days.

National Cemetery

Cité Soleil

Tent City in the middle of Port au Prince

The Presidential Palace

Destroyed Homes in Port au Prince

Monday I dove into a environmental clash story and and spent the day in Central Virginia photographing one side of a complex issue. It was windy, cold and I was fighting to not show the snow in the photographs. Low angles worked along with overpowering the available light with strobe. It is a good story and I enjoyed the challenge of shooting a piece for a summer issue while winter is still on the horizon.

Less then thirty-six hours earlier, I was savoring the last remnants of Haitian heat and humidity as I waited for the flight home. American upgraded me to Business Class which was unexpected and a nice way to close out the week of photographing the poorest of the poor in southeastern mountains of Haiti. Last week I spent three days photographing a team of medical professionals from the Community Coalition for Haiti as they traveled to remote villages in the Sequin Plateau. The second day we set up a clinic in a small church with no windows and three small doors. The light was amazing and I shot what I feel is my strongest work to date in Haiti.

Here are a few of my favorites. Two new galleries will go up on my portfolio site tomorrow. These are the teasers.

Tomorrow I’ll show more aerials of Port Au Prince and the destruction of the city. A set of these images will go to Corbis and to aerialstock.com.

A huge shoot. One week of travel. Remote medical teams in the Seguin Plateau plus aerials in Port Au Prince. Will edit on Tuesday. Here is a quick look from aerials shot yesterday morning.

The National Palace

Collapsed homes along the ridge line near downtown

Tent City in Port au Prince

An intense week of shooting along the southern coast of Haiti. I have barely touched the edit since arriving home late last night. The day began with a trip to the Canadian airfield in Jacmel and an MAF flight to Port au Prince. The helo schedule did not mesh up so I ended up spending the day on the Touissant Airport tarmac photographing cargo jets unloading and Americans trying to get home. At four-thirty I got on board a private jet headed to Ft. Lauderdale. We ran late and a few members of our team missed flights.

The first image was shot in downtown Jacmel. The second is in the courtyard which became the Community Coalition for Haiti primary care center.

More to come but I am exhausted. We spent a week tenting in a convent without a solid nights sleep and no food yesterday with little water. I am kinda wiped out.

Garden and Gun – the wonderful southern magazine with photo editing by Maggie Kennedy is showing a preview of my Chesapeake aerial book.

Garden and Gun – A Gulls Eye View

I have been prepping all week in between shoots for my 11th trip to Haiti. I leave tomorrow morning with the Executive Director of the Community Coalition for Haiti – a faith based Medical mission that I am also a member of their board. This is our fourth team of medical professionals since last week. I am going to shoot in a small Childrens hospital in Port Au Prince and hope to make it over to Jacmel mid week.

I won’t have the opportunity to post to the blog but hope to add a few tweets. My twitter address is: http://www.twitter.com/camdavidson

(Knox is the director of the NGO I am a board member for)

Dear Inova Family:

As you know, on Tuesday the island nation of Haiti suffered a calamitous earthquake, injuring or killing hundreds of thousands, and disrupting supplies of water, food and shelter to millions of inhabitants. Inova has a longstanding relationship with the wonderful people of Haiti, working closely with such organizations as the Community Coalition for Haiti (CCH), and we are working hard to provide supplies and services to as many of the sick and wounded as we possibly can.

I know you feel the same way, because I’ve gotten many inquiries from Inova employees about what they can do to help. As you’ve probably heard, right now the situation on the ground in Haiti is so complicated that the best way for us to help is to donate money to relief efforts. Consequently, Inova has set up a fund through the Inova Health System Foundation that will funnel 100% of the money you donate to CCH and other aid organizations that have immediate ability to help the people of Haiti.

You can donate one of several ways. To donate online, go to www.inova.org/donate, then click the “Make an online gift today” link. When filling out the form, be sure to choose “Haiti Relief” from the Designation drop-down list. You may also send a check to the Inova Health System Foundation, 8110 Gatehouse Road, Suite 200 East, Falls Church, VA 22042. Make your check out to “Inova Health System Foundation” and make sure you designate “Haiti Relief” on the Memo line of the check.

You may also donate by phone or by fax – the information for doing that is on the Foundation Web page noted above. If you have any questions about donating, please contact Paige Moses at Paige.Moses@inova.org or 703-289-2064.

Caring for people is a core Inova value and I see it at work in so many of your recent words and actions. Thank you for all you can do to help Haiti in this hour of need.

God bless you,

Knox

Knox Singleton

CEO, Inova Health System

Many of you may know that I’ve been shooting in Haiti for ten years as a board member for the Community Coalition for Haiti. We are a Northern Virginia based NGO whose primary mission is medical plus school building in the Central Highlands. The majority of our team are trauma and general surgeons, medical support and hospital administration professionals.

We are headed to a small hospital in Port Au Prince with three teams as early as Sunday. I will follow sometime mid-week. We plan to fly to the DR and then helicopter over to PAP.

I do not know who shot these camera phone pictures of the hospital in PAP where we are headed. Thank you whoever you are.
If you are interested in supporting this mission please consider sending a donation to:

CCH has set up a restricted fund so that 100% of your donation will be used to help those in need in the areas of Haiti hit the worst by the earthquake Even the smallest amount is a treasure to those without food, water, medicine, or help at this time.

CCH is committed to financial accountability and as a 501(c)(3),100% of all donations are tax deductible.
To contribute by check, mail to:
Community Coalition for Haiti
P.O. Box 1222
Vienna, Virginia 22183

For questions regarding donations, please contact Normajean Eleazer, CCH Financial Secretary,703-402-8685.