Sandhill Cranes

 For millions of years, Sandhill Cranes have migrated through North America on their way to breeding grounds up North, and the Platte River in Nebraska has long been one of their landing destinations. The hundreds of thousand of cranes that travel through Nebraska every late March create an absolutely stunning sight for photographers and nature-lovers alike.

March 18-21, 2024 & March 23-26, 2024 | Location: Kearney, NE | Tuition: $2,695 |
Deposit: 25% of Tuition

Deposit due upon registration, full tuition due 90 days before the workshop. 

We are thrilled to offer two back-to-back Sandhill Cranes workshops! In the first workshop join elite nature and wildlife photographers Melissa Groo, Dave Showalter and Michael Forsberg. In the second workshop you will be learning from Michael Forsberg, Jim Richardson and Dave Showalter. Both workshops will be along the Platte River in Nebraska to photograph one of nature’s oldest and largest migrations. In both workshops you will have private blind access with only our group and learn from the best!

Come fly away

In this workshop, you’ll be immersed in blinds along the Platte River to get an up-close look as the cranes dance, sing their famous “Crane Song”, and do other fun things that make for extraordinary pictures!

Don Paul 22-03.19 -3

Deposit

25%
  • of Full Tuition
    Due upon registration
Ogalla Aquifer Camera Scans 20220248

March 18-21

2,695
  • With Dave Showalter, Melissa Groo and Mike Forsberg
The view from our group’s blind as Sandhill Cranes depart the Rowe Sanctuary along the Platte River outside Kearney, Neb., Sunday, March 20, 2022. The thousands of cranes will work the fields and along the river all day, bulking up for the next leg of their spring migration, which could take hem as far as Siberia. (Photo by Brian Horton)

March 23-26

2,695
  • With Dave Showalter. Jim Richardson and Michael Forsberg

At Each workshop we will cover

Conservation Photography
Storytelling
Nature Photography
You Should take this workshop if

Workshop Itinerary

  • 2:00pm – Welcome and Overview
  • Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight
  • 5:00pm – Depart Fairfield Inn
  • 6:00pm – Position in blinds
  • 9:30pm – Return to Fairfield Inn
  • 5:20am – Depart Fairfield Inn
  • 6:30am – Positioned in Blinds
  • 7:31 am – Sunrise
  • 10:00am – Depart for Fairfield Inn
  • 11:00am-3:00pm – Lunch/Download/Downtime
  • 5:00pm – Depart Fairfield Inn
  • 6:00pm – Positioned in Blinds
  • 7:54pm – Sunset
  • 7:29am – Sunrise
  • 10:00am – Image Critique
  • 12:00pm – Lunch
  • 1:000pm-3:30pm – Field Work
  • 4:00pm – Return to Fairfield Inn
  • 5:30pm – Depart Fairfield Inn
  • 6:20pm – Positioned in Blinds
  • 7:55pm – Sunset
  • This is your day to sleep in, it is needed. You are free to shoot on your own in the morning but you will be best served to get your rest before our final night in the blinds with the cranes!

    • 10:00am – Fairfield Inn Outdoor Coffee Q&A
    • 11:00am-3:00pm – Lunch/Download/Downtime
    • 6:30pm – Depart Fairfield Inn
    • 7:55pm – Sunset

Meet Your Instructors

Workshop Faculty

Michael Forsberg

Workshop Faculty

Melissa Groo

Workshop Faculty

Dave Showalter

Jim Richardson - Summit Photography Workshops
Workshop Faculty

Jim Richardson

Owner / Director

Chris Steppig

Workshop Faculty

Michael Forsberg

Mike is a senior fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers who has focused his career on North America’s Great Plains, its prairie wildlife, and watersheds. His work has appeared in National Geographic and Outdoor Photographer, and his books on On Ancient Wings and Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild have been turned into documentary films for PBS. Mike is co-founder of the Platte Basin Timelapse Project, and currently serves as faculty with the University of Nebraska.

Workshop Faculty

Melissa Groo

Melissa is a wildlife photographer, writer, speaker, and educator. She’s a contributing editor to Audubon magazine, writes a column on wildlife photography for Outdoor Photographer magazine, and is an Associate Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers. She speaks and writes extensively on issues of ethics and conservation in wildlife photography, and leads workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Melissa was Chair of the Ethics Committee for the North American Nature Photography Association from 2014-2018. Her work has been published in numerous books and magazines, such as Smithsonian, Audubon, National Wildlife, and Natural History. Melissa is represented by National Geographic Image Collection and has a long-term gallery at Audubon Greenwich in Connecticut.

Workshop Faculty

Dave Showalter

Dave Showalter is based in Colorado and focused on the American West. Dave has published two books – Sage Spirit, The American West at A Crossroads by Braided River (2015); and the award-winning Prairie Thunder by Skyline Press (2007). Dave’s photographs and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Audubon, Conservation Biology, Outside, Outdoor Photographer, National Parks Magazine, High Country News, Wilderness, Colorado Life and elsewhere.

Workshop Faculty

Jim Richardson

Jim has work appearing regularly in National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler in addition to Geographic books. Jim is on assignment for Nat Geo projects almost full time and for good reason. Richardson, a onetime newspaper photographer in Kansas and Colorado, brings amazing story-telling techniques along with detailed research to his pictures. Thirty years ago, he began photographing the area around his hometown in north central Kansas.

Owner / Director

Chris Steppig

Chris is the owner and director of Summit Workshops. Summit was his first job out of college and nearly 20 years later, this is home.  He is in charge of all workshop operations, scheduling, logistics, faculty, social media, marketing and sponsorship. Chris has a passion for conservation, travel, and education and the workshops are a dream platform to help others reach new heights as not only photographers but as people.

Chris is an affiliate of the International League of Conservation Photographers. The iLCP is a U.S. based non-profit whose mission is to further environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography. This affiliation provides a tremendous opportunity to help deliver great content and also be an advisor on matters large and small.  He is also a professional advisor for Outdoor Photographer magazine.  Through collaboration and great communications with the editor of the magazine, there have been countless articles written by Summit Alumni in the magazine over the years.

Workshop Information

Photographing here is a practice in patience, persistence, and acceptance of what it gives you, but it can also be very rewarding and the experience itself and its sight and sound is unforgettable.

This workshop will provide opportunities to photograph sandhill cranes from group blinds on the Platte River as the cranes come back to the river roost for the evenings, and when they leave the river at first light in the mornings. In the mornings we will be up early and get to the blind and be settled in an hour before sunrise and will not leave until the birds have left the river. In the evenings, we will arrive to the blind about two hours before sunset and will not leave until dark. Between blind trips, we will download and edit images, have a group critique session of selected images, and provide opportunity to learn more about the Platte River Valley, its conservation and the wildlife it supports. There may also be opportunities to photograph these birds and other migrating waterfowl midday from county roads while they are feeding on waste grain leftover from in farmers fields from the previous fall harvest. Waste grain provides and nutrients from prairie grasslands and wet meadows provides fat reserves they need for migration and their early stages at the nest.

Photographing cranes in Nebraska’s Platte Valley is a very different experience than photographing cranes on wintering grounds or other migratory staging areas in the continent like Bosque Del Apache NWR in New Mexico or the San Luis Valley of Colorado where they are acclimated to human presence. This crane population in the Central Flyway is hunted in every state and province along their migratory pathway, except in Nebraska. Therefore the cranes are very skittish when they arrive here and usually do not tolerate human presence at less than several hundred yards unless you are in a blind or a vehicle. And while there are many protected areas for cranes and other wildlife along the river, central Nebraska is not wilderness. It is countryside, mostly in private ownership, and ranks as some of the most productive farmland in the world. Finally, the cranes and their daily rhythms and patterns change constantly, dictated by weather, water levels and disturbance, which are ever changing along the Platte. In late March, it can be 80 degrees and shirt sleeves one day, and 15 degrees and a blizzard the next. Together, this makes photographing these birds very challenging

Frequently Asked Questions

No! Summit Workshops is available to any photographer, regardless of what brand of camera you use. We often have camera gear available to borrow, free of charge, but you are not required to use that gear or any specific brand. 

Tuition includes activity fees, location fees, all instruction, planning and logistics. It does not cover hotels, travel, and most meals. 

Our Sports Workshop is for shooters of all ages and skill levels, from beginners to seasoned veterans. We all learn from and help one another, that is what makes the Summit Community so special. 

With few exceptions (like a medical reason), having proof of COVID-19 vaccine is a requirement on our Summit Workshops.

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