Alaska Photography Tours: Expert Workshops
Picture this: You’re standing in an open expanse of tundra and colorful wildflowers, with the stunning backdrop of rugged, snow-capped peaks reflected in the still waters of a small pond. It’s quintessential Alaska, and you’re ready with your camera. However, the light isn’t quite right, so you brace yourself to wait for the optimal moment. After all, truly great images require truly great light.
Suddenly, you hear your tour guide shout, “OK, everyone back on the bus.” Unfortunately, your itinerary doesn’t allow for waiting for good light, so you pack up your gear and leave without the shot you wanted.
While Alaska has many great tour operators, most of their trips aren’t built around the needs of serious photographers. Either they don’t let you wait for the best light, or you’re competing with 50–100 people for the same vantage point that’s been photographed by about 10 million other people.
If you’re a serious photographer looking for a truly unique experience, consider taking a dedicated Alaska photo tour. Jump to list of tours.
Unlike tours that cater to the casual traveler, a photo-centric Alaska tour or workshop is geared towards providing photographers with the opportunities to capture their dream shots (along with all the expected logistics, like transportation, accommodations, and meals). That means timing your visits to places when they have the best light, and traveling in small groups (typically around 10 people) so you don’t have to jockey shoulders to get the best shot.
It also means having one or more pro photographer guides along who can give you professional advice and instruction, as well as fun, creative, and technical support. And of course, you’ll be traveling with a group of like-minded photographers, which creates camaraderie and new friendships.
Also, a dedicated photo tour lets you get close enough to wildlife for great photo opportunities—and to do it safely. Photo tour guides have experience with potentially dangerous animals to handle any situation.
In short, a photo tour offers much higher value to people who want the focus of their trip to be about photography. Tourists take snapshots, but if you want to capture great photos that you can be proud of, this is how you do it.
Who Offers Photo Tours
A number of out-of-state companies do photo tours in Alaska, but we recommend one that’s based here. Nothing beats local knowledge and experience for helping you find the best spots at the best times.
Jeff Schultz Photography
Jeff Schultz is a 40+ year Alaska Professional Photographer and Official Photographer of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. He offers a number of multi-day photo tours and workshops each year, as well as custom, private photo tours. Jeff gets high marks on client reviews for being most personable and taking his client’s photo knowledge to the next level. Learn more about Jeff Schultz Photography.
Alaska Photo Treks
This is an Anchorage-based company that offers a variety of tours and workshops year-round, including a four-hour evening Sunset Photo Safari, and several multi-day workshops. They can even put together an itinerary customized to your particular interests. The two professional photographer guides who make up the company have more than 50 years of combined experience shooting in Alaska.
Michael DeYoung Custom Photography Tours
For over 30 years Michael has photographed for a wide variety of tourism, commercial and editorial clients with hundreds of publication credits. And now he’s sharing both his knowledge of the state’s most beautiful places and his secrets for capturing incredible images. Everyone from beginners to experts can join a scheduled tour or book a custom, multi-day photography trip. As a longtime Alaskan, Michael knows the best spots to go. And he can carefully craft custom trips to take you to the most magical areas. His specialty is landscape, wildlife and adventure-travel based trips around Southcentral Alaska—places like Chugach and Denali State parks, and the region’s accessible glaciers.
Where the Tours Go
Photo tours visit a wide variety of places. You may want to shoot landscapes, glacier, and aerial photography in Denali National Park, around Anchorage and the Chugach Mountains, and in the Wrangell St. Elias Range. You’ll find Northern Lights photography workshops in Fairbanks and the Interior. Wildlife photographers can take tours to see brown bears in Lake Clark, Katmai, and Wrangell; birds in Southcentral Alaska; and polar bears in Nome and on the Arctic coast. There are even Iditarod photo tours that follow the dog sleds along the course. And if you’re on a cruise ship, no problem: most have one-day shore excursions focused on photography.
Length
Workshops vary from single day to weekend to weeklong excursions in remote locations. Some focus on a single area for a number of days, while others allow you the chance to visit and photograph a variety of locations over the course of a few days or a week.
Many trips run in and out of Anchorage, which makes it possible to “add on” a photo tour or workshop to the beginning or end of your trip and combine it with another tour. Most tour operator itineraries allow for at least one or two extra days between when you fly in and out of the state, so if you’re already signed up for another tour, you may consider a one- or two-day photo workshop to brush up on your skills before heading out on the longer tour.
Multi-Day Tours
The Ayakulik River area is remote Alaska at its best — a fly-in-only area of Western Alaska with abundant wildlife and some of the most beautiful scenery in the state. During this workshop with professional photographers, you’ll capture stunning shots and experience off-the-grid riverfront camping
Immerse yourself in a multi-day Alaskan adventure that promises incredible views and jaw-dropping bear viewing in Katmai National Park, along with a warm camaraderie that only a small group expedition can create. Explore from your home base on the Island C, a research vessel that gets you close to the action while providing comfortable lodging and delicious meals.
On this six-day, all-inclusive summertime expedition, you’ll head to gorgeous Kodiak Island with Dan M Lee and Jessical Haydahl, two professional photographers specializing in Alaska. Your small group tour includes two brown bear viewing fly-outs and a marine wildlife tour. You’ll come away not only with better technical skills, but you’ll also learn how to think outside the box in order to capture the story behind the image, and how to document ...more
Everyone from beginners to experts can book a custom, multi-day photography trip in Alaska. As a longtime Alaskan, Michael knows the best spots to go. And he can carefully craft custom trips to take you to the most magical areas. His specialty is landscape, wildlife and adventure-travel based trips around Southcentral Alaska — places like Chugach and Denali State parks, and the region’s accessible glaciers.
$975+
Land Package Type: Photography Tours
Don’t just experience the beauty of Alaska — learn how best to capture it on your camera. Travel with award-winning photographer Jeff Schultz and you’ll get personalized, hands-on instruction as you take in the state’s magnificent sights. Choose from custom tours or small group tours with a maximum of 6 participants that depart throughout the year and include accommodations, transportation, and meals.
Stay at a luxury lodge near the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and spend each day viewing Kodiak Brown Bears with your professional photographer guides. And you’ll be there for the famous Fat Bear Week, when bears are fattened up from having gorged on salmon all summer.
Inqure for rates
Land Package Type: Photography Tours
Award-winning Alaska-based photographer Jeff Schultz can take you to stunning Alaska locations to create your dream images of Alaskan landscapes & wildlife. Whether you want to make photos in classic Alaska locations or in places that the average traveler will never see, based on decades of living, traveling and photographing all over Alaska, Jeff can create a custom photo trip that will meet all your wants and desires.
Single: $4,695; Double*: $3,795 each
7 Days / 7 Nights
Visits: Anchorage, Fairbanks, Delta Junction
Land Package Type: Photography Tours
$9,650+
8 Day / 7 Nights
Visits: Anchorage, Talkeetna, Palmer
Land Package Type: Photography Tours
This fall photography trip offers some of the best photo opportunities in Alaska as the seasons change. Head to Lake Clark National Park for grizzly bears, turquoise-colored lakes, snowcapped mountains and the bright gold colors of fall. You’ll also spend a half day photographing moose, and a helicopter flight to an iceberg-filled glacial lake only accessible by air. Fall can also be a wonderful time to photograph the aurora borealis, weather ...more
Try something new for fall foliage season this year: Take a photo workshop amid the stunning colors of Alaska! You’ll travel to a remote lodge in the Talkeetna Mountains, southeast of Denali National Park, via floatplane or helicopter from Talkeetna. Stay in cozy, rustic cabins and enjoy excursions each day with your professional photographer guides searching for bears or caribou roaming the tundra. You may even get views of Mt. Denali!
Day Tours
Join Alaska Photo Treks as they go hunting for the best light of the day, which during summer at this latitude can last for several glorious hours before sunset. You’ll be transported to scenic locations around Southcentral Alaska to shoot a variety of enchanting subjects. The itinerary is flexible and allows for spontaneous stops to photograph wildlife en route.
The 7- to 9‑hour tour out of Anchorage’s Lake Hood is led by a photographer-pilot whom has published photos in such magazines as Air and Space, Stearns and National Geographic. Set up for the best shots, every passenger gets a window seat and a two-way headset for pilot narration — you’ll have a stunning ride filled with photo ops of rugged mountains, glacial pools and ice blue glaciers. Then, you’ll land on a remote waterway to take photos on the ...more
With bald eagles, bears, and gorgeous scenery, as well as fascinating culture and history, these tours out of Skagway and Haines offer an up-close experience with insights from knowledgeable local guides. There are several options, including wildlife and nature tours that focuses on finding and learning about wildlife, a photography tour where you get the chance to enhance your photography skills, rafting, and some fun sightseeing tours ...more
Photograph alpenglow on snow capped mountains, frosty scenes glowing in rich winter light, wildlife wandering snowy paths, city lights reflecting on the water at twilight, and possibly even the northern lights!