A photographic tour of the major panoramic viewpoints of the Colorado Plateau. Locations include South Rim Grand canyon NP, Navajo National Monument, Muley Point, Natural Bridges National Monument, Needles Overlook, Arches NP and the 'Island' region of Canyonlands NP.

Hotel reservations will be reserved in Flagstaff AZ, South Rim - Grand Canyon NP AZ, Mexican Hat UT, Blanding UT and Moab UT.

DAY 1 > Las Vegas to Zion NP - Photograph Zion at night up the narrows

DAY 2 > Springdale (Zion NP) to Grand Canyon Nat. Pk. North Rim GCNPNR

-Photograph Torroweep at the GCNPNR
-photograph sunset GCNPNR at point Cape Regal.

DAY 3 > GCNPNR to Mexican Hat, Utah

- Photograph sunrise North Rim GCNP.
- Photograph Antelope Canyon National Tribal Park AZ
- Visit Navajo National Monument.
- Shoot Monument Valley at sunset.

DAY 4 > Mexican Hat, UT to Torrey, UT

- Photograph Muley Point
- Rock Art, Natural Bridges National monument
- Photograph capital reef NP at sunset

DAY 5 > Torrey, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park

- Photograph views from Boulder Mountain.
- Photograph views from Hells Backbone Trail
- Photograph Powell Point
- Bryce at Sunset

DAY 6 > Bryce Canyon NP to Zion NP

- Photograph sunrise Bryce Canyon NP.
- Arrive Springdale early afternoon . end

Tours Dates: On Request

William Shepley has photography in his blood. His great grandfather, Sam Wilson, had been a professional photographer in Leeds, England, in the late twentieth century and was foreman of the still lab at Universal Studios in the 1920s and 1930s. Williams father, Hugh, serving in Europe and the Asian Pacific during WWII, was a still photographer and field lab specialist in the Signal Corps. Later Hugh spent four decades as a film technician for Universal Studios and Walt Disney Productions.

In 1975 when William bought his first camera, a Minolta 101, he began photographing and documenting his travels using Kodachrome slide film. By that time, at age 22, he had already backpacked extensively in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and was familiar with survival and self sufficiency in the rugged wilderness of the Western hinterlands. In the late seventies after backpacking the Grand Canyon he became impassioned by the powerful landscapes of the Colorado Plateau. The 'Plateau' became his primary destination for photography. It was also a place to gather his thoughts and study the interrelationships of nature on our planet. William gave slide presentations to his friends and organizations around his home town of Van Nuys, California. It was also during this period that he began to develop and print black and white photography.

While studying for a degree in Geology at Humboldt State University, in Northern California, William absorbed himself in the photography department. Under the tutelage of fine art professor and noted lens-man Tom Knight, William studied the history of photography and expanded his skills as a photographer, especially in portraiture and the art of making Black and White photographs. He was the principle photographer on a brochure for the Fine Arts Department at HSU and took first place in the annual photographic competition, judged by the art critic Marjorie Mann (1984). Returning in 1986, as an alumni, he produced his first solo exhibition of his Black and White desert landscapes. Also as an alumni, William gave talks and presentations to Tom Knight's advanced photography courses until Knight passed away in 1989.

From 1985 to 1990 William continued photographing the desert southwest in black and white and color. This work was recorded by his Pentax 6 X 7 camera. It was during this period that he became very familiar with the geography of the Colorado Plateau. His degree in geology was essential in comprehending the various land forms and rocky mysteries of the 'Plateau'. He began to understand the Plateau as a contiguous land mass of geologic phenomena. "A landscaper's imagery" William states, "is greatly enhanced if he, or she, comprehends, at least in layman's terms, how the land forms were created and the science behind that process".

In the early nineties William's landscapes were represented by Saundra Abbott and the gallery/showroom Rituals, on La Cienega Boulevard, in the prestigious shopping district of West Los Angeles. His work is now in the collections of Steven Spielberg, Peter Guber, David Carridine, Stephen Root and other notable persons in the entertainment and advertising industries. Badwater, Death Valley

It was also during the period of the late eighties that William went out and photographed the urban and city environments, which factored in the element of timing. He applied his camera to places like Hollywood Boulevard, the streets of Athens, Greece, and the dark moody alleys of Istanbul, Turkey. "I was searching for what Cartier-Bresson called the 'decisive moment', recalls William, "a moment of improvisational spontaneity".

In 1990 William applied the concept of the 'decisive moment' to his photographic studies of the Equestrian West. For fifteen years William sought out the Western horse culture of North America, photographing working ranches, rodeos, cowboys, wranglers, trick riders, trick ropers, cattle drives, horse drives, roundups, brandings, and Western theater. His work goes beyond cliche. "It's really about the people behind the phenomena," William adds, "they are the heart and soul of this enduring American way of life. The tactile and textural nature of their world, together with action and emotion on an epic scale, create a rich mixture of photographic possibilities.