by: Andrew Waner
Sidney Mounts, a member of the Prospectus team, grew up in a small town called Gibson City; it’s a town about 30 miles northwest of Champaign. At the Prospectus, Mounts works as a photographer. He has been a taking pictures for the student newspaper for the last two semesters and is majoring in photography. The student plans to finish and get his degree in photography this spring semester.
Mounts currently lives in Champaign, as he moved here from Gibson City to attend Parkland. But if Mounts could choose to live anywhere, he would choose Italy. It always been a dream of his to leave the U.S. and travel the world because of all the stories and scenery he has seen in video games and photos.
Even though he has a dream to go to Italy, Mounts has found that the Champaign area has provided him different opportunities. The photographer has spent four years here at Parkland choosing different majors and exploring different classes until he found his true passion of photography. His main goal after graduating is to find a job where he can use his photography skills.
Mounts uses a Nikon d5300, which is his go–to camera. It helps him shoot all the photos he gets for the student newspaper.
While studying at Parkland, Mounts has found that his favorite classes have been digital photography and film photography. He informed the Prospectus that these classes have helped him develop his photography skills even further.
Mounts said, “These classes have helped me understand what I want to do with my life now. I’ve always loved to take photos, and with these classes they showed me how much I love to take photos of nature and people.”
Mounts greatly enjoys walking around campus and viewing the landscape available Parkland. “It’s always a pleasant sight to see all the beautiful flowers that Parkland has around the college,” Mounts said.
Mounts also said that he favors digital photography rather than film. His reason is that digital is less expensive to maintain than spending hundreds of dollars to produce only a set of photos on film. Landscapes and nature are his ideal types of photos. However, sports photos are a second runner up to him because he likes to capture action shots.
Mounts enjoys listening to music in his free time. He also plays two instruments which are the guitar and piano. These two instruments help him cope with living away from his family. Mounts’ favorite music artists are Alan Walker, Linkin Park and Suicide Sheep. In his spare time he really loves taking photos because he is passionate about photography and what it can do for him in the future.
When asked what his goal is, Mounts told the Prospectus that, “I strive to become a well–known photographer that can travel the world showing off my works.”
