We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Garrett Aitken a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Garrett, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Getting to the point of earning a full-time living was the main challenge for my first half decade of working in the photo/video space. For me, it came down to three things: 1. learning to understand that although it is creative, it is a business. 2. trying to find out how I could find the right opportunities. 3. honing my actual abilities.

I truly believe that any success story has luck involved somewhere along the way. I know there are people who believe that it was just that they put in hard work while others didn’t, but the way I view it is you have to make sure you are good enough to take advantage of luck or opportunities when they come. I can look back and name a handful of people that believed in me enough to give me a chance when maybe my portfolio didn’t quite show I was ready for that. What helped me get to a point of making this a full-time job was having those opportunities arise and then knowing that I put in the time learning and experimenting to take advantage. Most of the times I have had something like that happen, I have been able to piggyback that into either a higher level or an additional ability or style that I could market to other prospective clients.

Garrett, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Garrett Aitken and I usually say I am 90% videographer and 10% photographer. I started off with photography almost a decade ago. I initially shot real estate and within a year or so was able to grow a network of probably 50-60 realtors which brought in somewhat steady work. After about a year of that, my now wife and I decided to move which also meant all of my clients were gone. That made me start thinking about different types of work that weren’t so location-dependent. A couple years of working on that (with some extra free time during the pandemic) led me to doing some product work. This work eventually caught the eye of a production company and got me hired as a freelancer. This was one of those times for me where all the time I spent learning and experimenting really paid off when an opportunity arose. From the point that I was hired, it took about a year until I was the lead videographer for one of the top agencies in the state. That was the moment that I really believed I could make something out of this.

These days I shoot a variety of things but I would say sports, behind-the-scenes documentary, and advertisement work is what I enjoy the most. I have learned a ton along the way and every step has helped me develop. Even though it has been probably 7 years since I shot mainly photo, I still believe that my ability to create a pleasing frame is something I learned from that stage and is still my biggest strength.

As for what I am most proud of, the sports work I have gotten to do has been very rewarding. It isn’t the typical ‘photographer at a game’ shooting you may be thinking. I’ve gotten to shoot a variety of content ranging from videos for the jumbotron, TV shows, and general hype content. The moment that made me most proud was when I got to see an episode of my work live on TV. I had shot for a TV show before with a team, but this was two full episodes that were fully shot and edited by me on a quick turnaround. When I watch it back, there are things I’d love to have done differently, but it was still such an awesome moment to get to watch something you made play on TV for the first time (plus I was told about the shoot two days before filming needed to start so I cut myself a little extra slack.) On top of that, it is a project that I get the pretty unique opportunity to be behind the scenes with a professional hockey team. I know other people get locker room access, but there aren’t many people that can say they get paid to skate with professional hockey players and film them. All around, it is the biggest single “wow” moment I’ve had plus it is just a really fun job to get to do!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of this is being able to come up with new ideas or work with someone on their ideas and be able to make it a reality and then go back and do it all again. The ability to have different problems to solve regularly keeps it interesting for me.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

If I could go back and do it all again, the main thing I would change is trying to work with agencies sooner. It is hard in the early stages to get many opportunities. Agencies really gave me a chance to work on a much wider variety of shoots. Not only was it a more consistent flow of work, but it gave me an opportunity to find what types of projects I liked.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://duntrunestudios.com
• Instagram: @garrettacorn @duntrunestudios
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@duntrunestudios

Image Credits

Photo of me on the ice was shot by Phil Kline
Photo of me in stands was shot by Sam Herr