By Stephen Smoot
When fall comes around, it’s that season again. Men, women, and children pull themselves out of bed on cooler and cooler mornings. They find that reliable spot that always gives them the best shot when the opportunity strikes.
Curt Helmick of Lost Creek knows all about that special moment. The sun’s light, brand new and brilliant in the cold clear morning, the last vestiges of fog burning away, creating little wisps of vapor illuminated by the white natural light. He raises his scope, centers it on a brilliant creation of God, looking regal in a mahogany coat and a tail of brilliant white, his head unbowed by the massive rack sprouting in every direction like a lone oak tree ruling over a field.
Should Helmick gain this view, he finds the emperor of the forest surveying his ground, finds him in his scope, then clicks and preserves the divine image for posterity.
Curt Helmick is a mighty hunter – not to shoot a deer – but to find and bag the perfect shot of one. He shares that “God is great,” then sets forth to document the best that His Creation has to offer.
Helmick was born in Parkersburg to a family that loved to get the kind of shot of an animal that would put him on a plate for dinner. He, his father, and three brothers enjoyed the experience of scouring the woods looking for an opportunity to bring home dinner.
In his 20s, however, Helmick found himself examining one of those beautifully perfect images of sublime simplicity that West Virginia always has to offer. From that point, he put his priority into using his camera to chronicle Creation.
Helmick said of his first camera “outfit” that “I didn’t have much at the time.” He bought a Canon with an 80 x 200 zoom. With that basic starting set, he explained that “you had to get awful close” to get a zoom to the shot desired.
Over time and with practice, Helmick said “I slowly started taking images that were getting a little bit better and a little bit better.”
Helmick’s career straddles the best and worst of times for professional natural photographers. The early 80s through the early 90s represented a high point for photography. Magazines emphasized dramatic and brilliant photography to build subscribers and audiences for their work.
Life magazine helped to popularize the consumption of world-class photography, followed by Sports Illustrated. For Helmick, his passion for shooting wildlife played into a high market demand for excellent photographs in hunting magazines.
Hunting and outdoors magazines, as well as natural tourism centered publications like Wonderful West Virginia, paid excellent money for excellent photography. Although Helmick said “I shoot anything and everything,” publications’ need for white-tailed deer photos helped him to earn his first cover.
In 1987, he placed a white-tailed deer as his first cover, a major highlight in a four decade long career. That career saw his work placed in over 400 national and state publications. His photographs also graced calendars, video jackets, and more.
One of Helmick’s favorite publications to work with was Wonderful West Virginia. Published by the State of West Virginia, it paid top dollar for dramatic and powerful pictures of the Mountain State’s outdoors. Helmick said “back in the day it was pretty prolific.” Some of the nation’s best contributed because the publication “paid good money.”
He also looked up to “one of the most prolific wildlife photographers from the 1950s through the 1990s,” Leonard LaRue of New Jersey.
As the century changed, so did the industry. The old fashioned film cameras with their expensive attachments started to give way to digital cameras with capabilities beyond most traditional types. “When I first started,” Helmick said, “I used 64 ISO.” Modern digital cameras can have ISO in the thousands.
ISO (or International Standardization Organization) refers to the capability of a camera to capture light. ISOs of between 100 and 200 are optimal for daylight photography. Some recommend ISOs of 800 or more for low light or night photography.
The improvement of camera technology in both capability and ease of use has priced professional photographers out of a market they once dominated. Magazines now “get a lot of good pictures from amateurs” and “they don’t pay anymore.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that Helmick has let the industry and amateur saturation push him from his calling.
Tricks of the photography trade also include getting that perfect shot of a rare image.
Helmick explained the work behind his capture of a bird not often captured naturally, the American Kestrel. He described them as “very timid and shy.” Photographers almost always snap them hunting from power lines, which defeats the intent of taking a 100 percent natural shot.
Kestrels, a small falcon, have an unusual color combination of dull orange, slate gray, and dirty white with black markings.
He spends much of his time gathering shots from his family’s farm in Lost Creek that passed down to him through multiple generations. On that property, he set up one of his favorite shots.
Helmick described how he found a dead tree in a grove about 15 to 20 feet high. He cut it down and relocated it to the middle of an open field. Helmick called the construction a “snag.”
“Lo and behold,” Helmick exclaimed “the next day I saw not one, but a family of four Kestrels.”
“I shot thousands of images,” he said, sharing that he captured them performing many of their daily activities, including eating, preening, and more. “They gave me anything and everything for four days.” He said “I’ve been trying to get these shots for years.”
Even better, he returned shortly after that session and captured three youngsters learning to hunt from the snag.
Helmick also shared other tricks for getting great images, advising that “aspiring photographers need to take into account the whole image.” One related piece of advice may surprise amateurs, but Helmick advises to avoid bright and sunny days to get the best photographs. During fair weather, avoid the middle of the day when the sun is at the peak of its light. The bright light can be unforgiving for photography.
He adds that many make the mistake of “shying away from inclement weather,” but “anything that puts ‘wet’ on fur and feathers” helps to create a more dynamic and contrasted image. When it’s “cloudy all day, you get nice shots.”
Horizontal lines behind the subject also can disrupt the intention behind the image.
These tricks of the trade may seem subtle, but Helmick learned them over decades of his life’s work. Four decades and still going strong, Helmick continues to bring to life the best of the great outdoors.