June 5, 2010 Photo Safari to Kansas City's Loose Park

Pam, Bruce, Jan, and I met at Loose Park on Saturday, June 5 for the first “Photo Safari” of the season. A couple of others had to cancel at the last minute, but this was a nice size group. We all got to be friends after a few hours of walking around making photos and sharing knowledge with one another.

I think the real advantage of this type of activity is the ability to learn from one another. The group interaction worked very well, providing a better learning opportunity than a classroom or training video.

As both a musician and a photographer, I have known that the best way to learn to play well is to play with a group. A person’s musical ability improves about ten times faster on stage with a band than it does practicing in their living room. Photography, being primarily a solitary sport, lacks that interaction and playing off of one another. Getting together to make photos together goes a long way to solving that problem.

I intend to have Photo Safaris on a monthly basis for awhile, with each one in a different location and possible focusing on a different style of photography. See www.JimMathisSchoolofPhotography.com for a current schedule and more information.