World of Wonders: part 1 of 2

Free food, artwork, and video will all be featured at this year’s “World of Wonders” Portfolio Show and 13th Annual First Cut Digital Film Festival, set for 4 to 9 p.m. on June 9 in the MHCC Visual Arts Center.

Organized by the Integrated Media students at Mt. Hood, the old-fashioned, circus-themed exhibit will include students’ original photos, graphics and audio. Cinema-Magic – screening films created by film students – will be in the Visual Arts Theatre from 4 to 7 p.m. The student-created website is available now, at wonders.mhccim.com.

 

Photography

Mykala Williamson and Darby Cisneros are students in Mt. Hood’s photography program, a branch of the Integrated Media department. Both have contributed pictures to the “World of Wonders” website. Their work will be displayed at the exhibit.

“I do people,” Williamson said, on her primary focus in photography. “I really love babies and children and couples. I just like to get ‘that shot.’ When you’re walking down the hall… and you see a couple together and you see that random glance – where they look at each other and their faces light up…

“There’s no way else to really describe it, because it’s a feeling,” she said.

The photographers will have hanging prints and each photographer will have a portfolio book for viewing at the exhibit. A portfolio book is a set of photos that visitors may flip through to get a feel for the photographer’s style.

Cisneros’ profile displays a couple’s engagement and their wedding.

“I had the honor of shooting all their engagement photos and shooting their wedding, so it’s pretty much the whole story from start to finish,” she said. She wants to communicate to prospective clients that they can obtain the entire package by booking her for both their engagement and wedding, she said.

Williamson also takes photos of young children.

“Your baby is only a baby one time. That is the hardest part of the job,” she said, describing the challenge. “You only get that moment once.

Williamson’s own childhood was filled with her father constantly taking pictures. Her “turning point” on deciding whether or not to become a photographer began at her uncle’s wedding, where she was a flower girl and Kodak cameras were on every table at the reception. “I took every single one (frame) of them,” she said. “They got so many pictures of people’s feet, suits, maybe a boutonniere in there, if you’re lucky.”

She nurtured her love of photography by taking photos for her school yearbook in high school. “I’ve always had a camera in my hand,” she said.

Cisneros’ first photography subject was herself: “I didn’t have anybody to take pictures of, because I lived all the way out in the middle of the woods,” she said. Due to this, in her early years of high school, Cisneros would dress up and take pictures using the camera’s self-timer. “Before the ‘selfie’ was famous I’d just set the timer,” she said. “I really, really liked it…I booked my first wedding before I even knew what I was doing.”

Williamson and Cisneros said that photography can hold a thrill.

“It’s really addicting,” Cisneros said. “I get way too ahead of myself… When (I’m) shooting a wedding I have to remember to just, like, slow down and breathe and take a breath. Before you take one picture your mind is already thinking of the next one. You have to remember to slow down.”

The “flow” is the thing, added Williamson. It is good “when you have that flow where you’re taking one picture and can think and plan for the next one,” she said. “Or if you can get inspired from your picture or see someone doing something… and can turn that into a picture. That’s like taking your photography totally into the next level.”

On choosing photos to include in her portfolio, Williamson said, “I think it’s hard because we get this emotional attachment.

“We know the people, and can be like, ‘That is so them!’ But that (might) not (be) something you would put in your portfolio because it’s not professional,” she said. After graduating from Mt. Hood, Williamson plans to move to Kansas in late June, where she will get married and continue to pursue photography.

Both women are excited for the exhibit, where their friends and family can enjoy their year’s work.

On taking and editing all the photos, Cisneros said, “The process is long and daunting, but it’s a lot of fun.”