About Helen E. Grose
Helen E. Grose is a professional photographer, certified drone operator, and gallery owner who lives on an 80-acre farm in the heart of Muskoka. She offers: real estate & commercial photography; portraits of people and pets; sports, special events & editorial photo coverage; fine art prints & merchandise; and private photography lessons, workshops & guiding. When she's not making images for her clients, guiding, or teaching photography, Helen is working in (or on) her art gallery, spending time with her three rescue dogs, or searching for wildlife to photograph.
About Helen's Photography
Helen started her photography career travelling throughout Canada, the United States and Europe photographing professional sports events. Since then, she's been fortunate to capture celebrities on the red carpet, professionals at work, athletes giving it their all, and families sharing unforgettable moments. Helen's work has been published in magazines, newspapers and websites around the world, and can also be found hanging in private collections in homes, offices, and cottages worldwide. In 2015, she stopped travelling regularly to open a small gallery in Port Carling. After closing the doors for the off-season, Helen decided to focus her efforts on opening a larger gallery at home on her farm. In 2017, she became a photography instructor at Georgian College in Barrie.
About Helen's Passion
Helen describes herself as truly, madly and deeply passionate about wildlife. Spend two minutes speaking with her and you'll have no doubt about that! Her fascination with nature has led to countless hours of hiking/snowshoeing, waiting patiently, fighting off swarms of black flies, inspecting scat (a fancy way of saying poo!) and bones, pulling a few muscles, experiencing incredible heartbreak, and living some of the most exhilarating and awe-inspiring moments life has to offer.
She believes the most important factors in making images with impact come from outside the tools and techniques used to take photos. She feels that without researching and knowing your subjects, without patience and determination, without truly understanding the beauty and feeling the experience unfolding in front of you, you're simply watching life through small, expensive glass.
About Helen's Wildlife Ethics
Helen feels strongly about protecting the wildlife she loves so dearly. While she makes both financial and in-kind donations to organizations that are committed to protecting the environment and those who live in it, she believes she has a larger role to play by conducting herself ethically when out in the field. To Helen, no image is worth the cost of harm to a living being. As such, she continually educates herself on the human impact on wildlife and does her best to minimize any impact she has personally.
Helen at the outskirts of a heron rookery, captured by Steve Dunsford
Helen and her assistant, captured by Steve Dunsford
Helen is also a member of Nature First - an alliance for responsible nature photography, which is guided by 7 principles developed to help educate & guide both professional and recreational photographers in sustainable, minimal impact practices that will help preserve nature's beautiful locations.
Those principles are:
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Prioritize the well-being of nature over photography.
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Educate yourself about the places you photograph.
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Reflect on the possible impact of your actions.
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Use discretion if sharing locations.
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Know and follow rules and regulations.
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Always follow Leave No Trace principles and strive to leave places better than you found them.
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Actively promote and educate others about these principles.
Areas of Service
Helen calls Muskoka, Ontario, Canada home - specifically, Bracebridge - but is always happy to travel for work.
Many thanks to my friends & fellow photographers for capturing these images of me at work
Steve Dunsford, Chris Loh, Erik Chateau, Sheldon Carless, Gustavo Granzella, Anna Ivankova, Cameron Hagen, Jordan Cait, Jesse Villmaire, Ray Barlow, Nadine Amelotte, Gerry Gerich
Helen is continually learning about the natural world. She feels it helps her track wildlife and understand their behaviour, which both lead to better images, as well as more enriching time spent in the field.
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She is a graduate of the Ontario Master Naturalist Program at Lakehead University.
Helen has been a proud member of
Muskoka Arts & Crafts since 2017.
