Our photo club, Digital Dimensions & Beyond, held the June meeting at the shelter house at Loose Park in Kansas City. We had about 25 members at the meeting which was followed by a pot luck picnic at the park and then a photo shot in the twilight hours of the day. The early morning and late afternoon hours are often referred to as the "Golden Hours" because of the quality of the light.
This was our second year at Loose Park. Last year it rained and ruined our planned photo shoot in the park. This year, the weather was sunny, hot, and humid.
First, a little information about the historic and beautiful park so you can appreciate the photos below. As I often do, I copied and pasted website information for the park.
Park History
At 75-acres, Jacob L. Loose Park is one of Kansas City’s most popular, beautiful and historical. The park is well-known locally as being a major site for the Battle of Westport where Confederate forces were routed by Union forces in the area in which the park is now located. It is estimated that 29,000 people were involved in the battle. The property at that time was owned by William Bent, a man who led wagon trains and traded with the Native Americans.
Seth Ward bought the property in 1871 after William Bent’s death. In 1896 a group of people, many of whom had been members of the golf club near Hyde Park, incorporated the Kansas City Country Club and signed a lease with Seth Ward to use part of his property as a golf course for $1 a year plus taxes. The property included what is now Loose Park and was used as a golf course until 1927. In 1926, Ella Loose bought the property from the Hugh Ward estate (the son of Seth Ward) so that it could be made into a park to honor her husband, Jacob Loose. She gave the property to the city in 1927. Jacob Loose founded the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, which produced Sunshine Biscuits and other products. He passed away in 1923.
Kansas City’s municipal rose garden in Loose Park is the realization of a dream that began in 1931, when a group of citizens under the leadership of Laura Conyers Smith established the Kansas City Rose Society. The first garden contained 120 rose plants. Today, there are about 4,000 roses of nearly 168 varieties in the 1.5 acre garden. The garden recently underwent a $400,000 renovation project, which included planting 1,200 new roses and restoring the beds to the original plans.
The Loose Park Garden Center was built in 1957 for meetings and horticultural exhibitions of various kinds. The Garden Center, located in Loose Park, has two large meeting rooms with small kitchens attached to the meeting rooms. The Garden Center has a horticultural library open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is also a Japanese Tea Room, where Japanese tea ceremonies are held.
The first photos are of the club meeting and picnic in the very large shelter house. Following after are the photos I took in Rose Garden area of the park. I did not have time or daylight enough to walk to the lake and take photos there.
Sigrid Browning (right) and our friend, Edel DeMaria (left) wait for the food.
The low sun angle at 6:30pm highlighted the architecture of the shelter house.
Club members gather before the meeting/picnic. The shelter house is huge. Tables and benches are heavy metal and bolted to the floor.
The club furnished the hot dogs. Sigrid brought our own brats to grill.....plenty of room on the park grill.
We held a short club meeting to discuss future events before eating.
Time to eat. Members brought side dishes. As is always the case with pot lucks, there was way more food than we could eat and it was all delicious.
A view of the shelter house that shows how large it is and it's grand design.
Now comes the park photos that hopefully have some artistic value.
The entrance to the men's restroom complete with fountain to get you in the mood.
The women's restroom.
A closer view of the marigolds.
The rose garden has a wonderful fountain at it's center. On a Thursday evening, the park was amazingly full of KC residents enjoying the great weather. In this photo, we have a professional photo shoot and a family watching the water jets in the fountain.
The sun setting behind the fountain.
The fountain and the rose garden area.
The paths on both sides of the rose gardens have a line of pergolas that add to the classy look of the garden.
I will have to go back soon to take photos at the park lake.
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