Getting Permits and Access for Remote Locations
Getting the shot is only part of the job in adventure photography. Getting legal, sanctioned access to shoot in the first place is often just as important, and it's a step that's easy to underestimate until a project gets derailed by a permit issue that could have been avoided with earlier planning.
Permit and access requirements vary enormously by location, and building a real process for researching and securing them has become a standard part of how I plan any shoot involving remote or protected land. For the fuller system I use to plan location access, it's part of a bigger framework in The Adventure Travel Photographer's Playbook.
Why Permit Requirements Are Easy to Underestimate
Permit and access requirements for photography, particularly commercial photography, vary dramatically depending on jurisdiction, land management agency, and even the specific activity being photographed, in ways that aren't always obvious or intuitive from the outside. Land that appears freely accessible to the public for recreation can have entirely different, more restrictive rules for commercial photography or filming, and assuming access rules are the same for both is a common and costly mistake.
Different land management bodies, national parks, state or provincial land, private land, indigenous land, international protected areas, each have their own permitting processes, timelines, and fee structures, and there's no single universal system to learn once and apply everywhere. This means permit research has to happen specifically for each new location and jurisdiction, rather than assuming past experience in one location translates directly to a new one.
Timeline is often the most underestimated factor. Many permit processes, especially for national parks or other heavily regulated land, require weeks or months of advance notice, and discovering that requirement close to a planned shoot date can force an expensive last-minute location change or outright cancellation of a project that seemed otherwise ready to go.
The definition of what actually counts as commercial photography, triggering permit requirements in the first place, also varies more than most people expect. Some jurisdictions draw the line based on crew size, some based on whether models or actors are involved, some based on whether equipment beyond a certain size is used. Understanding the specific triggering criteria for a given location, rather than assuming a blanket definition applies everywhere, is part of doing this research properly.
How I Actually Research Permit Requirements
I start permit research as early as possible in the project planning process, treating it as a core scheduling constraint alongside weather and seasonal considerations rather than an administrative detail to handle later. For any location I haven't shot commercially before, I research the specific managing authority directly, rather than relying on general assumptions based on similar-seeming locations elsewhere.
Direct contact with the relevant permitting office, rather than relying solely on website information, has consistently surfaced more accurate and current information than static web pages, which can be outdated or incomplete. Permitting rules and fee structures change, and a direct conversation with someone who actually processes these requests tends to catch nuances that generic online guidance misses.
I also research whether local fixers or guides with established relationships to the relevant land management authority are available for less familiar locations, since local expertise on the actual permitting process, not just the terrain, can meaningfully speed up and simplify what might otherwise be a confusing bureaucratic process from a distance.
I keep a running internal record of permit requirements and contacts for locations I've worked before, since permit rules do change over time and even a location I've shot commercially in the past deserves a quick verification check before assuming the previous permit terms still apply unchanged for a new project.
Building Permit Timelines Into Project Proposals
Once I understand what a specific location's permit requirements actually involve, I build that timeline directly into the project proposal and schedule I present to clients, rather than treating permits as something that happens invisibly in the background. If a permit process requires eight weeks of lead time, that becomes a hard constraint on the earliest possible shoot date, communicated clearly during the proposal stage rather than discovered as a surprise later.
I also build in cost for permit fees explicitly in project pricing, since these fees can be substantial for certain locations and commercial photography categories, and absorbing them silently rather than pricing them into the project can meaningfully erode a project's actual profitability without the client ever understanding why.
For projects where permit approval carries genuine uncertainty, some jurisdictions have limited quotas or a competitive application process, I try to communicate that uncertainty honestly to clients rather than assuming approval and only raising the issue if it's denied. Clients generally handle contingency planning around a known risk far better than they handle a last-minute surprise.
On projects with a hard deadline that doesn't leave enough room for a standard permit timeline, I try to identify this mismatch as early as possible and raise it directly with the client, since it's much better to have a conversation about adjusting the deadline or the location before significant planning investment has happened than to discover the conflict once it's too late to solve gracefully.
What Happens When Access Falls Through
Despite careful planning, permit or access issues sometimes still fall through, whether due to unexpected denial, changing regulations, or logistics that shift after initial approval. Having backup location options researched and ready, ideally with their own permit requirements already at least partially understood, has saved more than one project that would otherwise have been derailed entirely by a late access problem.
I try to avoid the trap of becoming so committed to a specific location during planning that a permit issue feels like a project-ending crisis rather than a solvable logistics problem. Building genuine flexibility into location selection from the start, rather than treating one specific location as the only acceptable option, makes it much easier to pivot smoothly if access issues arise.
Respecting Land Access as an Ongoing Responsibility
Respecting permit and access requirements isn't just about avoiding legal trouble, though that matters too. It's about being a responsible steward of the locations that make this kind of work possible in the first place, and building genuine relationships with the land management bodies and communities who oversee access to remote and sensitive locations, so that future access remains possible for this kind of work over the long term.
I try to treat every interaction with a permitting authority or local community as part of an ongoing relationship, not a one-time transaction to get through as quickly as possible. Following through on any conditions attached to a permit, respecting the specific terms of an access agreement, and generally leaving a location and its managing authority with a positive impression matters for my own future access, and it matters for the broader reputation of commercial photographers as a group operating in these spaces.
Permits for International Locations Specifically
International locations add layers of complexity beyond what domestic permit research typically involves. Language barriers can make direct communication with permitting authorities considerably harder, and I've learned to lean more heavily on local fixers or guides for international projects specifically because navigating an unfamiliar bureaucratic process in a foreign language is genuinely difficult to do well from a distance.
Visa and work authorization requirements often intersect with permit requirements for international commercial photography, and the two need to be researched together rather than treated as separate concerns, since a project can have a straightforward location permit process but still be blocked by a photographer's inability to legally perform commercial work in that country without the right visa category.
Currency and payment logistics for permit fees can also add unexpected friction for international projects, since some permitting authorities require payment through specific channels or in specific currencies that aren't always straightforward to arrange from abroad. Researching this practical detail early, alongside the core permit requirements themselves, has saved real time and stress on international projects that would otherwise have hit an unexpected logistics snag close to a shoot date.
Planning projects that respect and properly navigate location access is part of the bigger system I cover in The Adventure Travel Photographer's Playbook.
Educating Clients Who Underestimate This Process
Clients without direct experience commissioning photography in regulated or remote locations sometimes assume access is simply a matter of showing up, and part of my job is educating them, early and clearly, about why this process takes the time and cost it does, without making the conversation feel like an obstacle being placed in front of their project.
I try to frame permit and access requirements as part of what makes the resulting content legitimate and defensible, rather than as bureaucratic friction to complain about. Content captured without proper authorization carries real legal and reputational risk for the client too, not just for me, and framing the process that way tends to help clients understand why it's worth the additional time and cost rather than viewing it as unnecessary caution.
I've also found it useful to share concrete examples, without naming specific clients or projects, of situations where proper permitting made a real difference, smoother access, better cooperation from local authorities or communities, results that wouldn't have been possible without the legitimacy that proper authorization provides. Concrete examples tend to land better with clients than abstract explanations of why the process matters.
Building Permit Research Into Your Standard Proposal Process
Rather than treating permit research as a special task reserved for obviously complex locations, I've built a basic version of it into my standard proposal process for any project, checking at minimum whether the location has any known commercial photography restrictions before finalizing a proposal, even for locations that seem straightforward at first glance.
This baseline check has caught more than one situation where a seemingly simple location turned out to have restrictions I wouldn't have anticipated without deliberately checking, private land boundaries that weren't obvious, indigenous land requiring separate authorization, or a local ordinance specific to commercial activity that a general search wouldn't have surfaced without direct inquiry.
Building this checking process into the standard proposal workflow, rather than only activating it for locations that already seem obviously complicated, has meaningfully reduced the number of late surprises that used to occasionally derail projects earlier in my career, before I treated this kind of research as a standard, non-negotiable step for every new location regardless of how routine it initially appears.
What I'd Tell a Newer Photographer About This Whole Process
My honest advice to a photographer newer to commercial adventure work is that permit and access research feels like unglamorous administrative overhead precisely because it is, but treating it as beneath the real creative work is a mistake that eventually catches up with anyone who makes it consistently. The photographers I respect most in this space treat access logistics with the same seriousness as their actual craft, understanding that neither one functions well without the other.
I'd also say that building genuine relationships with permitting authorities and local communities over time pays dividends that go well beyond any single project, smoother future access, better local knowledge, sometimes even opportunities that wouldn't have existed without that established trust and track record. Treating each permit interaction as a one-off transaction rather than the start of an ongoing relationship leaves real long-term value on the table.
None of this is complicated in principle, research early, budget honestly, communicate clearly with clients, respect the terms of whatever access is granted. But doing it consistently, on every project rather than only the obviously demanding ones, is what actually separates photographers who build sustainable long-term access to remote and sensitive locations from those who eventually run into problems that could have been avoided with more diligent upfront planning.
Why This Discipline Compounds Over a Career
The value of doing this well doesn't show up dramatically on any single project, it shows up gradually, over years, as a track record of reliable, respectful, properly authorized work builds a reputation that opens doors other photographers without that track record simply don't have access to. Land managers and local communities remember photographers who did things right the first time, and that memory shapes future opportunities in ways that are hard to quantify but very real over a long career.
Conversely, a single significant access violation, even an unintentional one born from inadequate research rather than genuine bad faith, can close doors permanently in ways that no amount of subsequent good behavior fully repairs. The asymmetry between the slow, compounding benefit of doing this well and the sharp, sometimes permanent cost of getting it wrong once is part of why I treat this discipline as genuinely non-negotiable rather than a nice-to-have best practice to follow when convenient.
I'd rather turn down or delay a project than proceed without proper authorization, even under real time pressure, because the long-term cost of getting this wrong consistently outweighs whatever short-term convenience cutting corners might provide.
That principle has occasionally cost me a specific project or a tight deadline over the years, but it's never once cost me a location or a relationship with the people who oversee access to it, and given how much of this work depends on continued access to remote and protected places, that tradeoff has always been the right one to make. I'd make the same choice again on every single project where it's come up, without hesitation, because the alternative risks something far more valuable than any one deadline, the trust and access that make this entire kind of work possible in the first place. That trust takes years to build and can be lost in a single careless decision, which is reason enough to protect it carefully on every project, treating it as one of the most valuable assets in the entire business rather than an afterthought behind the creative work itself. Everything else in this line of work, the images, the client relationships, the reputation, ultimately depends on that trust remaining intact, which is why it deserves this much deliberate attention rather than being treated as a footnote to the actual photography, no matter how unglamorous the paperwork and logistics behind it can feel in the moment compared to the actual creative work everyone signed up for in the first place, permit by permit, project by project, location by location.
Reflection Questions
- Do you research permit requirements as early as weather and seasonal planning, or as an afterthought?
- Have you priced permit fees explicitly into project costs, or absorbed them silently?
- Do you have backup location options ready if a primary location's access falls through?
- How do you communicate permit-related timeline constraints to clients during proposal stages?
Dalton Johnson is a professional adventure and editorial photographer with over a decade of experience shooting on all seven continents. His client work includes Patagonia, GoPro, Arc'teryx, Four Seasons, Nike, Rivian, Big Agnes, Ford Bronco, and 160+ other brands. He runs Dalton Johnson Media as a full-service studio, from pre-production through post and distribution.