Youngstown photographer focuses on flowers

Around Youngstown, Donald Rossi is known as the owner of Westmoreland Mechanical & Research Testing Inc. — which does materials testing for the aerospace, automotive, nuclear and medical industries — and as a booster of the small Unity community. Visitors to Cindy Christman-Johnson's I Frame It shop on Youngstown's main drag also might be familiar with his nature photography. The 83-year-old avid hobbyist keeps a room there to display, and sometimes sell, his up-close and vividly colored flower prints.

Question: When did you start photographing flowers?

Answer: I started about five or six years ago. I was getting older and my (sons Michael and James) were taking over the company, and now my grandsons are running it too, so that gave me free time. I thought I better do something or I'm going to go nuts.

Now I carry a camera with me all the time. If I'm running around and I see something that intrigues me, I'll stop and take a picture.

Q: What intrigues you about flowers?

A: I think flowers are the most beautiful thing in the world but probably one of the most overlooked. You look at it for a passing moment and say, oh, isn't that a beautiful flower, then you're off on your way.

What I find is that, even though everybody likes flowers, very few can tell you what that flower really looks like. If you see it up close, it's really a masterpiece. (My work) is mostly about trying to get people to understand the world we live in and how beautiful it is.

Q: Did you have previous photography experience?

A: I graduated from high school in Pittsburgh in 1951 and I was interested in photography way back then, using different cameras and making cameras. Part of my company's business is doing photographic work for our clients, only we do it under electron microscopes. I'm more familiar with macro photography. I don't do too much landscape work, though I'll stop and take a photo if I see a beautiful scene.

Q: So you're self-taught?

A: I was self-taught and then trained in photography in the Coast Guard and in the business world.

I think you have to be taught to do something first, then you have to be left alone to make your own mistakes and then learn from them. That's how I learned photography.

Q: What kind of camera do you use?

A: I've always used Leicas. I have a brand new Leica Q (compact digital camera).

Q: How do you describe your artistic process?

A: My trademark is that I like to put water on all of the flowers I shoot. Then I can focus on the water and it helps bring the flower into perspective.

I don't use artificial light; everything is natural. If it's a dark day, it's a dark day. If it's light, it's light. I don't want to fool night and day with f-stops, I can do just as much with light and color on my computer. I enhance all the colors to some degree.

Q: So you also do your own printing?

A: After I decided I could do certain things with a camera, I got the idea that I could print on canvas. Then I started framing the prints. People always say, boy, what a beautiful painting, but it's a print.

Q: Are you selling a lot now?

A: I don't try to market them. I just have them (at I Frame It), and if people come in and they like something, they can buy it. A lot of my stuff ends up in giveaways. If the hospital is having an auction, I'll give them something. Everyone around here who's having (a fundraiser), usually there will be one of my pictures there.

Q: What brought you from Pittsburgh to Youngstown?

A: I moved to the Latrobe area in 1962. I was getting married (to wife Mary Lou), so I wanted to settle down. I was working at Westinghouse and I had job offers from all over the place, including Latrobe Steel. I took their offer because I wanted to be in this beautiful area.

When I was 16 or 17, we used to drive up to Four Mile Run and stay at those cabins (in Ligonier Township), so I got to know this place well. When you come up to Mountain View and see that view open up in front of you, it's a beautiful thing to see. There's no better place.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5750 or smcmarlin@tribweb.com.