Onward and Upward with Kylan Tyng

After years of winning accolades as a director in Santa Barbara, New York and Los Angeles, Kylan Tyng takes to the sky for his new venture behind the camera: aerial photography. 

Photographer and director Kylan Tyng, born and raised in Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara, has spent the last two years exploring western North America to capture magnificent views of desert canyons, blue coasts and urban jungles.

On the reporting front, I’ve had the rare opportunity to witness my subject’s metamorphosis firsthand. Before Tyng was an artist, he was my childhood friend; many nights were spent playing Gamecube games while our parents bantered over a bottle of red downstairs.

I remember Tyng as the kind, inquisitive child who introduced me to the cinematic potential of LEGOs. He created films for his stop-motion dedicated YouTube channel before it was cool. “My interest in filmmaking came from my creative roots and a desire to share stories with a larger audience,” he said.

For this interview, I met Tyng in downtown Los Angeles at SOHO Warehouse, the exclusive artists-only club where he’d recently won a short-film contest with his movie Shipped. With six years of catching up to do, we looked back at our days at Laguna Blanca High School and respective college journeys, remarking on the things only time reveals.

During high school, Tyng discovered his natural creative strengths were in visual mediums like drawing, photography and film. “I knew I had a distinct point of view, but I was still figuring out how to channel it,” he explained. He entered Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 10-10-10 student competition two years in a row, ultimately winning Best Student Director in 2016 with his submission Lost & Found.

But by Tyng’s internal metrics, it was only when he attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts that he believed he came into his own. “I was able to dive into my creativity. I was surrounded by like-minded voices and able to forward both mine and others’ creative interests.”

While completing his BFA in Film and Television Production, Tyng took up college internships back in California, networking to make his planned return easier. “I always viewed New York City as a place to study and gain a different perspective on the film industry, but I knew I’d come back,” he said.

He was doing just that when the 2020 pandemic hit. As the global crisis unfolded and he edited his senior thesis film, Tyng discovered a problem: his film Gigglebutt – which follows a disgruntled astronomer’s quest to convince a child to rename her adopted star – needed more transition footage.

With the pandemic swiping the possibility of bringing actors together, Tyng got creative. He collected drone footage to create a memorable montage of travel mixed with pre-existing shots, the pivot being a testament to his creative problem solving.

It was then he recognized a common theme among all his films: aerial shots. He followed the thread that ran through his work for years, leading him to produce the prints you see today.

Tyng’s day gig as an executive assistant to two talent managers at Magnolia Entertainment has also provided helpful skills.  While different from his camerawork, “assisting successful artists as they hone their professional careers has given me great insight into developing my own,” said Tyng.

Tyng’s aerial pursuits fulfill his love for capturing life. “I’ve found something that I do solely for myself,” he said confidently, “but I’m grateful when others discover my work and think it’s cool too. I love seeing our world from new perspectives and then sharing its incredible beauty with others.”

Kylan Tyng’s photography prints can be purchased through his Etsy shop, KylanTyngPhotography. To keep posted about his aerial adventures, visit his Instagram @kylantyngphotography.