Washington Wide has been accepted into the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, as part of their Pacific Northwest Collection.
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It's a fitting home. The Pacific Northwest Collection exists to preserve the visual and written record of this region — and thirty years of panoramic photography across Washington State, built one sheet of Velvia 50 at a time, belongs in that record. This isn't a bookstore placement or a retail order. It's the book entering the archive, available to researchers, historians, and anyone tracing how this place has looked and changed over three decades.

Washington Wide is now on the shelves at two Third Place Books locations: Lake Forest Park and Seward Park.

Both stores were early supporters of the book, and it's good company — Third Place has built its name on backing independent and regional titles. If you're in the neighborhood, stop in and pick up a copy in person.

I sat down with Matt Payne for episode 497 of F-Stop Collaborate and Listen, and it's live now — released early and free for everyone, not just Patreon subscribers.

We covered a lot of ground: how I got into photography and teaching, what it was like assisting Ken Duncan in Australia early on, and what thirty years of photographing Washington State on panoramic film has actually taught me. We got into the real technical differences between shooting a Noblex swing-lens camera and a Hasselblad XPan II, why Velvia 50 is still the only film I trust for this work, and the specific problems a swing lens creates that a fixed-lens panoramic doesn't. Matt and I also traded notes on how we scout — maps, satellite imagery, boots on the ground — and why unpredictability in the field is something to work with, not against.

A good chunk of the conversation is about Washington Wide, the book: the foreword from Colville elder Randy Lewis, and why indigenous perspective on these landscapes matters to how the book tells its story.
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Listen: Episode 497 on Patreon

If you want your own copy of Washington Wide, use code FSTOP at checkout for 10% off and free continental U.S. shipping — preorder here.

I joined Scott Cowan on Exploring Washington State to talk about three decades photographing this state on film — and about the two cameras that made it possible, both of which are now out of production.

We got into the mechanics most people never ask about: how a swing-lens Noblex 135U differs from a Hasselblad XPan II, why I still trust only Velvia 50 after thirty years, and what it means to depend on a single repair technician — in his eighties — to keep aging camera bodies alive. I talked about apprenticing under Ken Duncan in Australia in the late '90s, processing images for America Wide, and how that shaped the way I see landscape now.

Scott and I also spent time on the places in this book that don't usually make the postcard rack — the Salmo-Priest Wilderness in fall, the camas fields at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in spring, the dunes near Hanford that almost nobody photographs. And we talked about Washington Wide itself: why I built it around the eastern half of the state as much as the western, and why I chose to self-publish and learn every step of production myself rather than hand it off.

Listen: Exploring Washington State — John Shephard, Washington Wide & Panoramic Photography

Washington Wide is available for preorder now at washingtonwide.com.

Washington Wide has been accepted into the Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections — added to the rare book room.
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It's a natural home for it. Thirty years spent photographing this state on panoramic film belongs alongside WSU's own record of Washington's land and history, preserved for researchers and readers who want more than a passing look. It's also a fitting return: I earned my degree at WSU, so having the book placed in the university's own special collections closes a kind of loop.