Carol Ann Norris
Wildlife Photographer
Wildlife and nature photographer, Carol Norris was born in Wales and brought up in England. From an early age, her parents instilled in her a love of the beauty evident in the outdoors, through regular family vacations to some of the more idyllic parts of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Carol’s life followed a more conventional career path as a bank teller until she came to Canada in 1996. Shortly after she emigrated, she received a camera as a gift. With it, she could capture the images of wildlife and the outdoors that she loved, and this fueled her passion to excel as a photographer.
Encouraged by the positive feedback of family and friends for her photos, Carol started entering contests and won several awards in international photography competitions. She also won a grand prize, a cruise tour of Alaska, for her photograph of an Alaskan glacier in another photography competition. This tour was pivotal in her life.
The prize included a heli-hiking trip into Denali National Park in Alaska, which Carol describes as her “favourite place in the world.” She had her first breath-taking encounter with caribou there, and was so awe-inspired by the wildness and grandeur of the park, that she fell completely under its spell. She knew that she had found her calling and would spend her entire life photographing such beauty.
Carol’s equipment is exclusively Pro Nikon, both bodies and lenses, her favourite medium being Pro slide film. The most important element in photography is light, and Carol spends many hours, sometimes days, waiting for the perfect shot. Her photographs often look as though they have been manipulated, but the final image is exactly the same as when she shot it – nothing added, nothing taken away. NO digital manipulation is used.
Her patience and hard work are key to capturing the perfect shot. Six years ago, in the Arctic, she spent ten days on the tundra shooting polar bears. On another occasion, she spent four days on her knees in a field in Northern Ontario in sub-zero temperatures, so cold that she became dangerously numb and could barely move her fingers to operate the camera. The pay-off was her signature piece, a magnificent close-up of an owl in full flight.
This drive to seek out rare places and exquisite creatures has taken her on trips all across N. America, the Arctic and Europe, and has enabled her to incorporate her passion for travel and adventure into her photography business. She has aspirations to explore Antarctica and Africa in the future.
For the past eighteen years, Carol has lived on the shore of Lake Huron, in the summer tourist destination town of Southampton, Ontario. She opened her own gallery there in 1999 and has sold her work to customers from all over the world. Every year, Carol releases a new collection, and this year’s is “Paris in Springtime,” slated for an August release in her Southampton gallery.
Her work has also been featured in a solo exhibition at the Elevator Gallery in Toronto and has been published in various international magazines. She also sells at art shows, such as Orginals in Ottawa, One of a Kind in Toronto, as well as shows in Kitchener, Muskoka, and Windsor. Her photos can also be found at the Owen Sound Artists’ Coop.
Carol is a dedicated and impassioned photographer. As you view her photos, you will feel her immense joy and appreciation of the natural world, an aspect of our world that is as dynamic and abundant, as it is fleeting. Thank you all for taking time to view her photos, which will soon be available for purchase online. Please come and visit her gallery in person anytime.