Ken Whitmire, one of the state’s most well-known wildlife photographers and a longtime supporter of The Gallery of Ocean Shores and North Beach Artists Guild, was honored by hundreds of people in a memorial service in Yakima on Monday.

In Ocean Shores, he was recalled as “a master of using light.”

“Ken was very in tune with the light sources that he could use, and he used them very well. His timing was just exqusite,” said longtime friend and fellow photographer Judy Horn.

The 86-year-old Whitmire was killed Nov. 19 while en route from his home in the Yakima area to Ocean Shores, where he also had a beach cottage and often photographed local wildlife and scenes from the beach.

Whitmire had been a member of the The Gallery of Ocean Shores and North Beach Artists Guild since 2012.

“He just was an incredible influence, not only in the local art community, but definitely in the photography community here,” said Roy Lowry, president of the North Beach Artists Guild. “He was just an inspirational person to be around.”

Whitmire also was the first judge for the juried photography category in the Associated Arts of Ocean Shores annual show.

“Ken always said that he wanted a photograph to tell a story,” Lowry said. “He always wanted more than the subject, and to impact the viewer with the total character, the environment and everything else. That was a big part of his legacy.”

An account of his death in the Yakima Herald-Republic by reporter Mark Morey noted Whitmire “brought his style of large wall portraiture to prominence and for decades taught his colleagues to elevate their craft.”

“He absolutely had an international reputation. He is considered an icon in our industry,” said Rob Behm of Spokane, the incoming president of the Professional Photographers of America.

In January, Whitmire accepted a rare Lifetime Achievement Award from the PPA. He was only the 14th recipient, and the first from Washington state.

His family said he was driving to Ocean Shores when he was killed.

“His family will miss him dearly but know that he was doing what he loved up to the last minute. Photography was his passion and he continued working and teaching at the top of his profession,” the family said in a statement issued by his daughter, Linda Sellsted of Yakima.

State troopers said Whitmire died at the scene when his Dodge Durango left the road and hit a tree on U.S. Highway 12 about 30 miles east of Morton, in Lewis County.

In Ocean Shores, Gallery and Guild members learned of Whitmire’s death later on Saturday when he didn’t show up to open the Gallery that morning. He was volunteering to run the front desk for artists/photographer Lee Staley, who was going to be the artist in residence that day.

“It was just devastating to hear that this had happened when he was on his way over here — just devastating to all of us,” Staley said. About a dozen of artists locally had come into the Gallery that day for Staley’s show and then learned of the death of Whitmire. “Everyone was heart-broken.”

Also featured in the Gallery is the photography of Brent Whitmire, Ken’s son, and Ken’s photo of a snowy owl at Damon Point is the largest print on display for sale in the local business on Point Brown Avenue.

“Ken was just a true professional,” Lowry said. “He lived his passion in photography. It was so much a part of his life and his family’s life. With him, family always came first.”

A native of Oklahoma, Whitmire grew up in several states. He attended Naches Valley High School, where he took photography classes for two years, shot photos for the yearbook and played varsity football. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Schools of Photography in 1949, specializing in aerial work, the Herald-Republic reported:

“Following his Navy service, after a stint in carpentry and work in Alaska, he decided to take the plunge into professional photography, realizing that he was spending any spare money on camera gear. He opened his first studio in Yakima in 1956. He became an early advocate of transferring photos to large pieces of canvas material instead of paper and would go on to make portraiture in that medium his signature style.”

Whitmire often said that his form of photography harkened back to a time when painters would create large portraits. He taught that the framed photo canvases should be treated as even more valuable than a piece of prized furniture in a family’s living room.

“To me, a successful portrait is one where a total stranger will stop and take a look at it without knowing anyone in it. Something about it has impact,” Whitmire told the Herald-Republic in 2015.

Whitmire’s talent first attracted widespread attention when he shot a series of striking black and white photographs chronicling the building of White Pass Ski Area in the early 1950s.

In Ocean Shores, Lowry called Whitmire “a force of creativity.”

“Any time he was here, his time was so full,” Lowry said. “He was always very excited to be in the Gallery. He was warm and embracing, and he was a sales professional. He really was enthusiastic about making sure you didn’t leave the Gallery without purchasing something. It’s really a loss.”

Photo artist Horn noted that Whitmire had been a member of the Associated Arts of Ocean Shores for more than 20 years and inspired many local photographers.

“He was always so willing to help,” she said of their friendship that goes back to the 1990s.

Of all his skill, Horn is most impressed with how Whitmire used natural light: “He would go out and scout out an area to find out when the light in that area was the best, and then he would bring a subject out there and capture that.”