Getting to Alaska was not easy, nor was it an over night journey. Flashback six years, I had just graduated college and was starting a career in photography. Often, I drooled over images of braided glacial rivers documented from small bush planes. I would day dream about the non-pressurized cabins and the images I could potentially take. However, I was not in a place where I could fund a personal project to Alaska. I was broke, living in a car, struggling to pay my student loans. So, how did I go from broke to being paid to travel through Alaska? Mostly luck with a little bit of fortune.
How to build a travel photography career in 5 years:
I am going to over-simplify here as I understand there are entire blog sites and online schools dedicated to teaching how to build a photography career. However, the steps are quite simple, but the work and patience is hard:
Step One: Build a lifestyle where you can travel often; vanlife, be homeless (only kinda kidding), be a dirtbag
Step Two: Build a portfolio
Step Three: Share your work everywhere; every social media site, emails, agencies, everywhere
Step Four: Build a book of business (aim for roughly 50 companies to pitch ideas to)
Step Five: Be persistent asking for work to your book of business
Step Six: Rinse and repeat steps one to five
Like I said, this would be an over-simplification of the process, but this is what it takes to build a business. All of the little things add up over time! If you stick with it, you will see!
Your are successful at starting a photography business, now what?
Congratulations on building a business, now, can you get away from it? Or, can the photography business go with you? If not, start making some changes. If it can, you are in the perfect position. Why is that? Well, you have a business that is feeding directly into the life you want to live. For myself, that is always the key. Money sitting in the bank (or ideally invested) is nice, but a lifestyle you enjoy is more important.
Some tweaks you might need to make:
Project delivery dates hold you back; get an editor, or start to schedule them farther out
Your book of business doesn’t care about Alaska content; convince them AK has something for everyone, or find other clients
You don’t have the money to travel to and from AK; find a client to cover the costs and you front the rest
You are scared to leave and make traveling Alaska a personal project; have an outlet for image licensing and/or build an influencer account (micro-influencers can still get their costs covered)
Once you make these tweaks, you should be set to go, but how do you do that?
How to make a summer in Alaska Possible as a content Creator?
At first, you might think it isn’t possible to get your trip to Alaska funded for every excuse under the sun. I don’t blame you, that was my original thought six years ago. I had build three decks and shared them with over 300 companies, most of which never had the courtesy of responding even after 5 follow ups. But, that did not stop me, nor should it stop you. If you want to spend a summer in Alaska and get paid to be there, here are the steps you will need to take:
Build a pitch deck to share with companies; this should include the 5 W’s, what they will get, and convince them to get on board
A reminder, most companies will say no, or simply not respond. This hurts, but it is normal.
Figure out all the details you can, save up enough money to go, then go
If companies backed you at first, great! If not, be there like you are on a shoot, everyday.
Shoot timeless work and don’t sleep. Like actually, work so hard you pass out as soon as your head hits the pillow.
Back up all of your work and review content daily
Pitch brands while you are in Alaska, but focus on local brands and be willing to do exchanges for your time to offset the cost
Again, shoot timeless images. These are images that are evergreen and not brand focused. This allows you to sell those images in the future to brands, magazines, and everyone under the sun.
I understand this is a lot of information. If you have questions on this, give me a follow on Instagram and shoot me a DM asking a question.
Personal story of taking the risk and traveling to Alaska for a summer:
Yes, I used the outline above to make a summer in Alaska happen. Yes, I was paid as a content creator to be there. Yes, I made a profit from the trip and I haven’t even finished sorting all of the content from my four months road tripping around the massive state of Alaska. Additionally, I focused on creating content to expand my portfolio in several aspects like wildlife, adventure, tourism, and cold locations. I took a risk instead of pocketing the money from the main job. At the moment, after four months of traveling and creating content in Alaska I have profited $232 (that means all of my bills were paid etc.). That might not be a lot at first glance, but time will tell how much this trip will actually make me. My guess, 10s of thousands of dollars.
What did I do while Traveling in Alaska?
How I got there: I drove my van from California, up the Alaskan Highway and Cassiar Highway to the state of Alaska
My main job: I was the camera operator and director for a mini-documentary on an athlete climbing Denali (this fronted the cost of the trip)
Side Jobs: I created brand work for a sunscreen company
Trade Work: While in Alaska, I did several trade jobs (providing content for an experience) to expand my portfolio
Speculation Work: I shot spec work for companies in the outdoor industry space that I hope to license to them in the future
How will I make 10’s of thousands of dollars from this trip?
Right now this is an estimation of what can come from this initial trip, but I do have hope that if I market this work correctly, the profits will be tremendous. How is that so?
Influencing: I built a personal library of Alaskan Travel that I can now share and build a following around it
Image and video license: Companies and magazines are always on the look out for Alaska content
Write a book about vanlife travel from Cabo, Mexico to Denali National Park: This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and feel I can write this in the coming year, I just need to have somebody publish it
Future Brand Work: If I market the work correctly, companies and agencies will see what I am capable of doing then hire me
Mini-doc credibility: As with most projects, you hope it goes well. Making the mini-documentary I am hopeful that will lead to some other work in the mountain space, but I am not totally certain. I’ll keep you posted!
If you are looking at that list and saying to yourself, “Dalton, you are a lier, this is not making money directly from traveling in Alaska.” You are correct. However, this initial investment of four months time, the experience of road tripping with a loved one to new locations, and coming out of it with a modest profit should be worth it in the future for the reasons listed above. Now, that is not to say that I don’t have a ton of work ahead of me to edit and market the content I have created.
Highlights You Don’t Want to Miss While Road Tripping to Alaska:
1) Boya Lake in British Columbia, Canada
This provincial park is gorgeous! The color of the water is unlike anything I have ever seen in terms of a lake that is land locked. The video below shows you just how pretty it is!
2) Make sure to find out where you can find eagles, they are majestic
If you are exploring the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska there are eagles everywhere. Keep an eye out around rivers for these massive birds. Check out this short of a few eagles I saw while in traveling in AK:
3) Go backpacking and enjoy the colors of the never ending sunsets
During the summer months, the days are long in Alaska and the sunsets last for a long time (my longest was 2.5 hours of orange glow) as a photographer, this was a dream! Two hours of color popping sunsets on a backpacking trip made for some grogeous drone footage. Check it out below:
4) Be on the lookout for Moose
Moose were all over the place during the summer in Alaska. This means you need to drive safe, but it also means you have a massive opportunity to document wildlife if you are an aspiring wildlife photographer. Check out this baby and momma moose I saw near the road:
Take the risk and travel to Alaska to create content
My heart says be bold. If you want to go to Alaska and have the ability to create content for a living, do it! You will not be upset about it. In fact, you will be excited that you opted in on the idea. Heck you might even cash in on the trip. All you need to do is listed above in this blog. Yes, I will admit, making a profit of $232 isn’t a lot, but that is only for now. Please note, money is only one of serval metrics of success. This trip, regardless of future financial gain, is already a success. I achieved a dream of mine. Visiting Alaska and being paid to be there, I can still hardly believe it happened. When I said you will need a bit of luck, I meant it. The original client who brought me to Alaska came via word of mouth and out of blue while I was on a project Joshua Tree.
Once he told me about making a mini-documentary on Denali, I got my butt in gear so I could be in good enough shape to lug my camera gear around the mountain. While we didn’t make it to the summit—the athlete backed off at the fixed lines—I had been mentally building the trip to Alaska out in my mind for years prior to leaving. This time and dedication to the dream allowed me to create an endless library of content that I will be using for years to come.
On a final note, if you are considering going to Alaska. Do It! Plan accordingly, work your buns off, and make the trip!
Update Late 2022: My work has now accrued a small amount of recognition and I have now landed three jobs directly from my time in Alaska so my return on the investment of traveling to Alaska is around $11.3K, at the moment.
