30 June 2026
Thanks for stopping by my profile!
Here’s some more about me: I earned my Part 107 license in 2021 and have been flying drones commercially since. I like to tell people I was designed in California and refurbished in Virginia (sorry Apple). I grew up in Southern California in the greater Los Angeles area and have been living in Virginia since 1999.
I have two grown children and I live with my partner Stephanie, also an accomplished photographer. Together we have a travel YouTube channel, @ExploringwithBurkeandSteph. This is where I use aerial photography creatively. For most of my career, I have worked in television news at the local and network level as a writer, producer and video editor.
While at Pitzer College I got the journalism bug, beginning by writing for the student newspaper and eventually writing as a stringer for the local daily newspaper in the Pomona Valley – The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Around this time I became interested in television and did internships at KABC and KTLA. That’s where I caught the visual storytelling bug!
In 1991 I interrupted my studies at Pitzer and enlisted in the US Navy. I served during the Operation Desert Storm era but it was all over before I graduated from boot camp. Military bearing served me well as I studied for the FAA Part 107 exam – this type of precision is what I bring to every drone shoot.
After I got out of the Navy, I moved to DC because I wanted to try journalism in the Capital. I finished my degree in Political Studies and interned at CNN’s DC Bureau. But my career didn’t really start until I was hired at KESQ in Palm Springs, back in California. My first paid tv job was as a video editor. People there said I had a talent for it, and I was encouraged to try to work as an editor in LA. But in Palm Springs I caught the producing bug! Producing was for me the perfect mix of writing and visual storytelling, and I got to do both in a live situation. I was presented with an opportunity to be on the launch team for a 24 hour local news channel in Orlando, and I took it! I learned so much from the start up experience, and I helped innovate a production technique that gave our shows a more natural, live feeling, even though much of it was pre-recorded.
Eventually the challenge of producing in DC presented itself and I was able to work at Newschannel 8 – the local news station in the DC market. They had a well deserved reputation for presenting the news in a thoughtful, non-hyped manner that focused more on government, transportation and education and less on crime. In addition to producing local news there, I also produced the station’s entertainment program. Most of my career has been in DC tv news. I’m a member of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the EMMYs).
I was happy to be working in the Washington media market, I had met my future wife and life was good. However, most people who want to do DC journalism eventually want to cover national news. I had my first opportunity to do some of that for an internet startup, Energy News Live – which produced hourly 15 minute news updates throughout the working day, over the internet. It was cutting edge for its time. I was able to cover Capitol Hill, various energy related federal agencies like Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I also had my first opportunity to do live work in front of the camera. Some of my first live shots were on 9/11 and it’s aftermath. Experience in live tv has been so helpful in flying drones – split second reactions and situational awareness as well as the ability to think on my feet. These skills have all translated to flying drones.
Energy News Live fell victim to the internet bubble of the early 2000s and I found myself back in local news, this time as a writer and producer for the news leader in the DC market, WRC-TV. At that level, everyone is super talented, and the challenge of working in that environment helped me grow as a writer. I also was married and had two children. We adopted our oldest from Russia when he was nine months. I was on the morning shift for four years and eventually it took a toll on my health. I was able to find an opportunity working for another startup, Retirement Living TV. It wasn’t news but the hours were normal and I was still working in live tv. That worked for about a year until I was on the wrong end of a layoff. I was able to freelance at Reuters TV and eventually was hired as a video producer for The McLaughlin Group Sunday talk show. I worked for them for 10 years and eventually became their video package editor as well.
In 2016, I became a Daily Hire at ABC News and that relationship remains to this day. I at last achived my ambition of producing news at the network level. It’s also a full circle moment with the beginning of my career as a stringer for a local newspaper. Now I’m essentially a stringer for ABC. I am usually hired as a “booker” – meaning I help find and secure interviews of people during news events. I’ve also field produced live shots for Good Morning America and This Week. I’ve been able to work on some memorable stories for ABC, such as the deadly 2017 Unite The Right Rally in Charlottesville, the Johnny Depp trial in Fairfax Virginia, and many others. Again, covering breaking news requires the same type of professional temperament required for successfully flying drones.
I have also worked in corporate video production for the Virginia Farm Bureau, and it is there that first started flying drones. During this time I also met my partner Stephanie Wirt, and I relocated to the Richmond area in 2021. The Communications department at VAFB didn’t have a drone pilot on staff, and I lobbied to take a prep course through Dronegenuity for the Part 107 license. I passed the first time I took it and I’ve renewed every two years. Dronegenuity has me on their list of pilots and they continue to send me work in the Richmond Virginia area.
I’ve seen how aerial photography has enhanced and democratized visual storytelling. Some of my favorite drone shoots have occurred over water, whether it’s the Chesapeake Bay, the Pamunkey River, or other Virginia tributaries. I’ve also captured many of the vineyards in Virginia’s wine country as well as the Appalachian Mountains in snowy conditions. I also enjoy going to construction sites and using the drone to record a project’s progress over time. Video can show how workers are performing their jobs, while a still from a drone can help a presenter in an office point out several things that are happening within the frame. My work has been featured in the Virginian Pilot and Tidewater Review newspapers, as well as the “Real Virginia” television show produced by the Virginia Farm Bureau. Since fall 2025 I’ve been freelance and looking to make drone flying a full-time career. I’m constantly inspired by what can be filmed using a drone, and I have plans for a standalone drone YouTube channel.
In the meantime, Stephanie and I are producing our own YouTube travel channel, @ExploringwithBurkeandSteph. We like traveling to new places or exploring new things about places where we’ve been.
Thanks for reading my profile, I hope I have given you a window into my experience. Let’s get in touch!
WAtch!
