The Fresno Arts Council sponsors ArtHop, an event which educates the community about the local arts. In this column, junior Dana King chronicles her twice-a-month visits to ArtHop.

After high school, students are free to make their own decisions for whatever comes next in their lives. Alumna Ellie Mullins, ’09, chose to follow her father Paul Mullins in the art of photography.

On March 3, Paul hosted an ArtHop at Mullins Studio, located in the Cultural Arts Building, Suite D. His wife Chris said that although it takes work to prepare for ArtHop shows, they are a motivator for him to rotate the framed photos.

Paul’s favorite form of photography is landscape, while Ellie’s is people. All of their photos are beautiful — in fact, they look as if someone painted them.

My personal favorites are the three-part photos. The actual pictures are too wide to fit in a single frame, so they are spread out over three.

Every photo captured so much color. Simple pictures of grapes and trees showed life despite the fact that they are two-dimensional images. However, the wall covered in Polaroids drew my attention more than any of the landscapes.

Before the advent of digital cameras, photographers were only able to see a rough shot of what they would be capturing by taking a quick Polaroid. Since regular film was expensive, a Polaroid would give photographers the cheap, fast glimpse they wanted.

Although I like to take pictures myself, I still enjoyed viewing the photos that the Mullinses showcased at ArtHop. Paul was welcoming to visitors and he answered any photography questions that they had. For those who attend, he will not disappoint.

In addition, Paul said that the key to landscape photography is timing. Everything must be planned in advance in order for the photographer to express emotion in an image.

The ArtHop at Mullins Studio is a great opportunity for people interested in learning about photography. Though attending an ArtHop event can be a passive experience of looking at the beauty of others’ works, it also can be a time to learn about how to improve personal skills.

For more information on ArtHop, read the March 1 column, Squeegee method fashions unique art.

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