Photographer Cameron Davidson spoke on “Around the world at 500 feet, or helicopters I have known.”at the ECWG’s Cosmos Club dinner on Saturday, May 18, 2013.

From Wrangel Island in the High Russian Arctic aboard a Soviet Era MI-8 helicopter, to fifty feet above the active volcano, Erte Ale, in the Denakil Depression of Ethiopia, the hottest inhabited desert in the world, the aerial photographs of Cameron Davidson will give you a unique perspective on places you once thought familiar.

While sharing photographs from all corners of the globe, he discussed his approach to creating emotionally-charged graphic images from aircraft circling slowly, 500 feet above the ground.

Davidson lives in Northern Virginia and has shot all over the world for clients including Vanity Fair, American Express Departures, National Geographic, ESPN, Audubon, and Smithsonian magazines.

His work has been commissioned for advertising campaigns, annual reports and editorial features.  In addition to commercial work, he has completed several projects of personal meaning and significance.

He worked for 13 years in Haiti with the NGO Community Coalition for Haiti documenting the work of surgeons, and spent more than 20 years photographing the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from the air.

The photographs from the latter project were published in his most recent book, Chesapeake, one of six books among his collected works. His awards include CA Photo Annual, Graphis Photo, Print Design Annual and the Pictures of the Year competition.

• Davidson’s Web site