Nestled between marshy grasses and towering cattails, in a homemade blind built from zip ties, mesh fencing, and hay, Michael Forsberg readied his camera and waited for the Sandhill Cranes’ to arrive for their nightly roosting ritual. It was March, and he was trying to capture a single photo to depict the beauty of the flocking birds and the rambling Platte River—two symbols of his home state of Nebraska. “I wanted the Sandhill Cranes to be part of a landscape picture that tied everything together,” says Forsberg, a veteran wildlife photographer who lives in Lincoln. “But with nature photography you have to fail miserably before everything comes together.” That night he waited for hours on the riverbank—like he had many nights before. After studying the cranes for decades, Forsberg was familiar with their evening roosting patterns. “When they come back to the Platte at night, they don’t just plop in . . . they run the river up and down, inspecting different...