Fieldcraft Intensive: The Prairie Dancers
Fieldcraft Intensives are designed to help participants master the art of wildlife photography at the highest levels.
Limited to 3 people
This workshop combines two things I've never offered together. Three days of floating hides in the prairie potholes with three days photographing sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens from purpose built ground hides.
This workshop is timed to coincide with the peak of two of the most incredible yet least photographed wildlife opportunities in North America: the waterfowl migration in the prairie potholes region and the mating dances of sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens.
Limited to only 3 participants, the format of this workshop is built around experiences and education that are not possible with larger groups. The Fieldcraft Intensive is PhotoWILD's most advanced instruction: reading behavior, predicting how animals will use the landscape, and building the fieldcraft that makes the image possible before the camera ever comes up. Every PhotoWILD workshop teaches fieldcraft. This one teaches it at a completely different level.
The location is the prairie potholes region of North Dakota, an area most photographers have never heard of despite being one of the most significant ecosystems on the continent for birds. It's often called the duck factory of America. Close to 80% of North America's waterfowl are born here, as well as 30% of all of the shorebirds.
Our floating hides are built to resemble muskrat huts, and they move with us through the marsh, putting our lenses at water level with the birds. This creates opportunities completely unlike anything you have ever experienced before. Don’t be surprised if birds land on top of you to preen.
The other half of this workshop will be spent working from ground hides built for photographing sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens on their leks. These will allow you to work at eye level to photograph some of the most dramatic bird behavior on the continent.
You can expect to photograph sharp-tailed grouse at the apex of their choreographed dances, prairie chickens booming, waterfowl in numbers that are challenging to even believe your own eyes, western grebes rushing, and eared grebes dancing on the water.
There is truly no other workshop like this.
The Basics
Number of Participants: 3
Dates:
April 22 - May 1, 2027 | 1 space available
Cost: $11,500
Deposit: $2000
Workshop Leader: Jared Lloyd
Lodging: Single occupancy included
Classroom Session: The workshop opens with a full day in the classroom . This is not a formality. Instead it’s the foundation for everything that follows. In addition to getting familiar with the different types of blinds we will be working from, we will dive into everything from behavior, to autofocus strategies, to understanding the nuances of working with the species we are targeting. The classroom day is the difference between fumbling through the first couple field sessions and hitting the ground running.
Pre-Workshop Preparation: Prior to the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to attend a private online zoom session to discuss the workshop, have questions answered, and ensure everyone is fully prepared before arriving in North Dakota.
Post-Workshop Image Review and Post-Processing: With our Fieldcraft Intensive Workshops, participants will have the opportunity to schedule a post-workshop image review and post-processing coaching session. This is included with the price of the workshop.
What’s Included:
Pre-workshop Zoom meeting
Classroom Session
5 days of mind-blowing bird photography
Floating blind which is yours to keep after the workshop.
All lodging in single rooms
Post-Workshop Image Review
Not Included
Chest Waders
Meals
Ground transportation
Airport: Bismarck Airport, North Dakota (BIS)
Location: Pierre, SD, and Bismarck, ND
Skill Level: Intermediate - Advanced
Physical Difficulty: Moderate.
Experience Highlights
The Fieldcraft Intensive isn't a standard workshop scaled down—it's a fundamentally different educational model.
With only three photographers, instruction goes far deeper than traditional workshops. In classroom sessions and on-land coaching, participants learn professional-level fieldcraft: reading topography to predict how animals will move, identifying natural funnels to bring wildlife to you, executing motion camouflage approaches to get close to even the most sensitive species, and interpreting the behavioral cues that separate extraordinary images from missed opportunities.
Once in the field, each photographer works independently, applying these techniques. This builds real mastery that transfers to any wildlife photography situation.
The smaller group size enables intensive daily briefings tailored to individuals, detailed image reviews, and strategic adjustments based on what's working in the field. Pre-workshop consultation customizes instruction to each participant's goals. Enhanced classroom sessions cover advanced behavioral ecology and field technique impossible to teach in larger groups.
This is fieldcraft training at its highest level.
North Dakota Itinerary
Day 1:
Arrive in Pierre, South Dakota. Check into hotel by 4pm. Official meet and greet and discussion of the coming days.
The first half of the day will be spent in the classroom. Here we discuss the skill sets you will need to take advantage of this workshop. This will be a skills-intensive session and will be a critical part of workshop for a multitude of reasons. That afternoon, we will head out onto the prairie so everyone becomes aquatinted with the blinds and navigating to them.
Day 2:
Each morning we will head out before dawn to arrive at our blinds an hour before sunrise to photograph America’s birds of paradise - sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens on their leks.
Days 3-5:
Day 6:
Depart Pierre, South Dakota, and head for Bismarck, North Dakota. We will grab lunch then head out in the afternoon with our floating hides.
Days 7-9:
Each day will be spent working from floating hides across the prairie potholes region. Here we will focus on waterfowl in breeding plumage, as well as western grebes, eared grebes, and various other species depending on which locations we work form each day.
Day 10:
Say our goodbyes and head home.
Workshop Leader
Jared Lloyd is the founder of PhotoWILD Magazine—the only publication dedicated to fieldcraft in wildlife photography—and PhotoWILD Workshops. With a background in biology and a 20+ year career as a professional wildlife photographer and environmental journalist, he has guided film crews for National Geographic, BBC Natural History Unit, and PBS. His work is widely published and can be found in the likes of National Geographic, New York Times, National Wildlife, and Audubon Magazine. Jared pioneered the integration of ecology and animal behavior into wildlife photography education and has been teaching fieldcraft-based workshops for 17 years.
Have questions about this workshop? Ready to sign up?
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Or, send us an email: info@photowildworkshops.com
The latest trip report. . .
Every May I push a floating blind into a cattail-lined slough in the North Dakota prairie before first light, and every May this landscape finds a way to surprise me. This year the marsh had taken a beating over the winter and responded in ways I did not expect - both in the water and out. And the birds acted like they had waited their whole lives for this moment.
