For Kyle Griffith, a career in videography started with a trip to Best Buy.
Griffith, 40, always had a fascination with drones and flew remote-controlled airplanes as a child. While looking for a laptop at Best Buy, he saw a drone for sale and wanted to have it.
“I saw one that was in the price range of the money we had in our pocket at the time,” Griffith said. “It really wasn’t money we had to spend, but it was something I kind of impulse purchased.”
He quickly began filming aerial footage of Wildcat Creek and posted it on Facebook. To Griffith’s surprise, it got a thousand views. His second video received 2,000 views.
Seeing that people were taking an interest in his videos, Griffith compiled a “videography bucket list” of places in Kansas people might want to see from a drone’s perspective. This list included Monument Rocks, Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park, Mushroom Rock State Park, Kanopolis State Park, Faris Caves and Pillsbury Crossing Wildlife Area. He created a business page devoted to photography and videos, naming it “Dad’s Eye View.”
“The reason why my drone videos got so much attention is because people will drive by these locations all the time,” Griffith said. “You take a photo of the same location with a drone and suddenly they’re seeing an entirely new perspective.”
Griffith became a licensed drone pilot in 2016. He taught himself with YouTube tutorials and then asked a college friend, who filmed weddings professionally, for editing advice.
Griffith went on to film weddings alongside his friend, and as Dad’s Eye View grew in popularity, people reached out to book photography and video services.
Amid his drone experimentation, Griffith applied to an open videographer position at Kansas State University and gained a lot of experience.
“Over that year, I learned more about videography than I have since,” Griffith said. “It’s like college, only I got paid for it.”
After Griffith’s contract with the university ended, he took a job at Fort Riley’s public affairs office.
During his three years at Fort Riley, he had the opportunity to ride in tanks and Black Hawks.
“I remember this epic shoot,” Griffith said. “I had the gimbal (a type of camera stabilizer) with the camera in one hand, and I was operating the ATV with my other hand. We were riding through the Flint Hills of Fort Riley, up and down the hills, through the trees, through water, everything. I’m filming with my camera, and the whole time, my coworker is up in a Black Hawk chasing us and he’s no more than 200 feet off the ground.”
Videography brought Griffith financial stability for his family.
In July 2017, his family’s home in Manhattan burned down. A few years later, he and his wife, Amanda, bought a house in Wamego where they live with their five children.
Amanda is involved in the process, too, operating the second camera for wedding shoots.
Kansas is an interesting state, Griffith said; it’s all a matter of perspective.
“You always hear that Kansas is boring and I always disagreed with that,” Kyle Griffith said. “I think there are a lot of awesome things here, and I wanted to go and prove it.”
Griffith now works for New Boston Creative Group, a marketing agency in Manhattan. In the near future, Griffith said he hopes to establish a community film program in Wamego in collaboration with the Columbian Theatre.
Griffith said he is thankful to be where he is today.
Growing up, he watched his father work an office job, crunching numbers all day. Griffith said he was never able to imagine himself doing that.
“With total respect for my dad and all those who do jobs like that, that wasn’t for me,” Griffith said. “I found my passion.”
