| |
 |
| © Natalie Ross |
| Lucy Ross, 8 |
Until she was nine years old, Natalie Ross lived with visual acuity that was less than 10 percent of normal eyesight. That deficit was easily corrected with glasses, but Ross still remembers those blurry fantasy years. In fact, she’s convinced they sparked her love for photography.
“I remember seeing photographs with shallow depth of field and identifying with them,” says Ross, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Today, Ross’s Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT delivers consistently sharp images. She sometimes combines studio portraits with manicured food shots for the local restaurants that have hired her to photograph their plates for advertising and promotion. For one ad she paired the veiled beauty shown above with a cherry-topped chocolate martini because both “lead a person by their desire to uncover a mystery.”
“I feel more of a connection with the subject in food, product, and portrait photography than with documentary work,” Ross explains. “When I’m able to control a situation, rather than be an observer, that’s when I feel the joy of creation.”
|
