Philip Bloom on Social Media

Busy, Busy, Busy

School, work, family... what else can I possibly have time for? Volunteering to shoot the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Golf Tournament at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kansas... that's what. Yes, I am very busy, but last friday I drove up to Newton to spend a day on the golf course. I had a great time and a great conversation with Ralph Terry, a pitcher from Larned that played for the NY Yankees and won two games, including a complete game, four-hitter, in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series to win the championship. Did I mention he was named MVP of the series? He has a great sense of humor and is extraordinarily nice. By the way, he became a professional golfer after baseball and last friday his team won the golf tournament I shot. Anyway, I have a lot of footage to watch and edit into a short piece for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Web site.

Today I met Craig Barton, the son of W. Frank Barton (as in the W. Frank Barton School of Business at WSU). I went to shoot a Signal Society spot for KPTS. Craig is a great guy and extremely down-to-earth. He had several autographed photos and magazine covers with famous golfers and U.S. presidents in his office, along with oil paintings of late-18th/early-19th century period scenes. He loves history and values the historical programming that KPTS offers. It was a great experience. I'm pretty sure that he is the wealthiest man I have ever shaken hands with.

Tomorrow I continue training. I am learning to direct the Sedgwick County Commission meetings for KPTS. I hope to direct this show and many others someday in the near future, so I am trying to learn as much as possible.

I also love spending time with my family. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, my daughters have gymnastics classes on the opposite end of town. This will be the first saturday that my boys do not have soccer games, however I have a final exam at 8am, then I will be operating one of the cameras at the WSU baseball game that afternoon. On the weekends we all (Amber and I, two boys, two girls and one dog) spend time together, so I keep pretty busy trying to juggle all of these responsibilities.

CPL Filter Test

I saw a Circular polarizer (CPL) filter at Best Buy and decided to test it out. I was in class late, but got home and put it on my T2i and stepped outside to shoot. It was already really dark in the shadows, so I will have to test it again in the noonday sun. Anyway, all the exposure settings are listed in the video.

Funding Your Projects

OK! So you have this great idea for a project, but have no idea how to secure funding to make it happen. Before you put it on the shelf of great ideas that were never realized, check out Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative pursuits of many kinds.

I have read just about everything on their site and I have concluded that this is a great opportunity for producers, at least to get feedback on your ideas. The worst thing that can happen is a project doesn't get funded and you are back where you started... except you at least received feedback on the demand for your product. With easy tools that allow you to share and promote your project through social media, you may just muster up enough support to make some money doing what you want.