NEW SCOTLAND — He and his friends would film each other doing tricks on their skateboards or snowboards. That’s how Dylan Longton of Slingerlands first got into making videos. He has since made videos professionally — most no longer about skateboarding — for clients who hire him to film their weddings or other events, businesses, or homes.

He soon started branching out from filming just friends to all kinds of other subjects, and next began to add music. “But I didn’t make it any kind of business until I got a drone,” he said.

Recent subjects of his videos — which incorporate sweeping aerial views taken with drones — include the 2015 Voorheesville Memorial Day Parade, the opening day of the 2015 Altamont Fair, the 2014 Sheriff Apple Fall Classic golf event, and an introduction to the Central Square Housing Community in Colonie.

Longton’s life was changed when he went on a trip three years ago with a friend’s family to Aruba. As soon as he arrived on the island, he saw posters for an “extreme skateboarding competition.” He went even though he had left his skateboard behind at home, thinking that he would not need it on the trip.

At the competition, he borrowed other kids’ skateboards to compete, and learned that there was also a parallel contest, for videographers, to see who could take the best video of the competitors. 

Watching those videographers — many of whom used drones — at work, and seeing the quality of their completed work, was what first got him serious about making his own videos, and in particular about incorporating the use of drones.

“I was like ‘That’s the coolest thing; I have to get one,’” he recalls, “so I ended up getting one and two and three and four and five, and just working my way up. The first ones I got were all in the $500 range. Now I just have a $4,000, professional-level, top-of-the-line model.”

 “It’s all GPS satellites,” he says, explaining how to control the drone as it flies. There are a couple of steps that trigger the GPS and keep the drone stable.

He can view everything that the camera sees, remotely, on the screen of his iPad and can control the camera with a clicker. Using the drone, he can also take aerial photographs, many featuring saturated colors that are achieved through long exposure and editing.

When making his videos, he often prefers, he said recently, to look not at the monitor but at the drone itself, since that’s how he first learned to fly it and that’s what he is most accustomed to.

“I’m a good pilot with it,” he adds matter-of-factly.

He recently met a professional film crew that used drones with equipment that was much more expensive than his own. The crew was impressed, he said, at the control he had over his drone without watching a monitor.

“I’m able to capture the good shots, while being safe with it too,” he said, referring to the fact that he is always watching it as it flies, which can reduce the risk of errors in calculation.

Another thing that he prides himself on is his ability to pick a song to build the video around, and then edit the images to complement the music.

“I like lining the clips up with the beat,” he says. “Something’s always going on with the beat — it’s either a new clip starting or someone’s doing something right on the beat. And that’s what makes a video smooth and roll nice, because it has good transitions,” he said.

He pointed out that he made the Voorheesville Memorial Parade video not for any particular client but just for his portfolio and because he wants to make “something positive and entertaining for people to look back on.”

Longton recently launched a website (www.prettyalright.com) where he can put up examples of his videos and his aerial photos to show friends or potential clients. He has also purchased insurance to cover both the drone and liability (“just in case”).

Longton also has another side business, designing and making vinyl signs and decals. This too started from his skateboarding days. A skateboard shop that used to sponsor him in competitions had a sticker cutter that he thought was cool. “I just eventually bought one to make stickers and have fun,” and that interest gradually grew into another side business. “Now I have some nice accounts all over the place.” His web site shows decals that he has made for organizations including New Scotland Physical Therapy, New Salem Fire Department, and Colonie High School Track & Field.

Longton’s family moved from the Arbor Hill section of Albany to Slingerlands when he was five. There were four children in the family, and his father worked for Crowley Foods and painted houses on the side.

At Voorheesville, he said, other kids would get extras like PlayStations. His parents were able to take care of his needs more than his “wants.” He would usually receive new things only at Christmas and his birthday. His parents also offered to get him things at the end of the school year if only he could get good grades, “but that never happened,” he said with a laugh.

He was “the outside wild child” type of kid, he said. More than his studies, he was interested in riding dirt bikes or building tree forts and skate ramps.

He got a job and started making his own money at age 12, bussing tables at the Windowbox Café in Slingerlands, he says, which he kept for the next 13 years. He worked there full-time for the last eight years, most recently as a cook, leaving only earlier this year. 

He got another offer to work at remodeling houses with Dennis Rhodes of Slingerlands. Rhodes and his wife, Donna, Longton said, are people he has known for many years; he got to know them originally as customers of the restaurant.

“It was an open kitchen. I cooked out in front of people, and could talk to people all day — all kinds of people, from the littlest kid to the oldest person.” 

Longton has been close to the couple for so long that they’re like family to him now, he said.

The Rhodeses, he said, are supportive of all his endeavors, not only helping him to learn a trade, but giving him the freedom to pursue his other endeavors as well. “Any time I have a big sticker order, it’s like, ‘No problem, get that done. Make the money you’ve got to make.’ He’s always pushing me to charge more, too. He thinks I don’t charge enough.”

Longton hopes, as the Rhodeses have, to be able to give back to younger people.

He wants to encourage other young people to discover the joy of skateboarding — a hobby that he believes is not only a lot of fun but also builds character. Skateboard enthusiasts, he said, get plenty of experience at continuing to work at something despite multiple failures, for instance, when they try to learn new tricks. This makes them resilient, he said.

Every June for six years, he has organized a “Go Skateboarding Day” at the Washington Park tennis courts in Albany, getting sponsors to underwrite the costs. This year was the first time that he received official backing from the city. Longton believes that the energy among skateboarders is usually very positive and creative, and that this is an asset to an urban environment.

He believes that Albany needs a more permanent way to foster this same good energy.

“One reason I stay in the area, instead of moving out west to California or wherever,” he said, “is that Albany needs a skate-park plaza, and I want to make that happen.”