Joe Whyte: Master of outdoor images

By TIM WILCOX

Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

It’s a surprising instance of contrasting origins and outcomes. Joe Whyte’s roots are in the upscale and somewhat hoity-toity soil of south Orange County. He was born and grew up in Corona del Mar. He also lived for a number of years in nearby Newport Beach, then in Laguna Beach – two of the West Coast’s most affluent communities.

Yet Joe just might be the quintessential mountain man. He’s inhabited a rustic Crestline cabin with a pleasantly eccentric floorplan for more than two decades. He’s an avid hiker, mountaineer, rock climber and backcountry skier. Among other accomplishments, he’s ascended Mount Whitney (at 14,505 feet, the loftiest peak in the lower 48 states) five times along several challenging routes. Joe only provides such personal details when asked. He’s anything but a braggart.

Composing a biographical entry unrelated to higher altitudes, Joe served in the Vietnam War. For a year spanning 1971 and ’72, he was part of a CIA-sponsored unit running clandestine reconnaissance missions into Laos and Cambodia.

“I was the only draftee in that unit,” he says. “With members from the Army, Navy and Marines, we flew all over those countries in C-130s” (huge Lockheed transport planes).

Blending vocation with avocation, Joe is also a world-class photographer. “As a kid, I had thoughts of growing up to be the next great white hunter,” he admits. “I owned a .22 and a shotgun. Fortunately, I ended up pursuing images rather than animals.”

Joe earned an Associate of Arts degree in photography at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, then a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in commercial photography from the Pasadena Art Center. Followup chapters focused on advertising photography, mostly in south Orange County, then multi-year stints in two camera stores (Claremont and Santa Ana) as an expert staff member.

He’d originally discovered Crestline back in the mid-1970s, when he met his now ex-wife, who was living in the town and attending junior college in San Bernardino. They were renters for a number of years in Orange County, then realized it was time to buy. Crestline beckoned again, with its appealing alpine setting and affordable housing. It’s been Joe’s home since 1991.

Extraordinary landscapes

It’s also the base for his extraordinary landscape photography. Naturally, he’s ranged all over these mountains, capturing images such as Heart Rock falls, an enormous moon “sitting” on top of Strawberry Peak and panoramas from the rim stretching out to the Pacific Ocean.

But as an outdoor enthusiast of the first order, he’s also ventured far beyond the San Bernardino Mountains. A favorite destination is the Trona Pinnacles in the California Desert National Conservation Area, situated midway between Bakersfield and Las Vegas. Joe’s images of the “tufa towers,” calcium-carbonate spires and knobs that formed underwater more than 10,000 years ago, are amazing. Other favored settings are Red Rock Canyon State Park, just east of Bakersfield, and various destinations in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

“I’ve also traveled up and down the coast many times,” says Joe, “from San Diego to the Oregon border.” Prime landscapes are found north of San Francisco way up to Crescent City. In October he’ll undertake an ambitious photographic expedition along the Oregon coast. He’s ventured even farther north to Canada’s enormous Vancouver Island as well.

One secret to the immediately obvious impact of Joe’s photography is the almost obsessive research he does before each foray. “I plan my shots carefully,” he says. “I learn as much as I can about the area, including where the sun’s going to be in the sky at certain times.” Total absence of moonlight is particularly important for one of his signature series: remarkable images of the Milky Way. Identifying venues with minimal artificial light pollution is essential, too. Joe has done exactly that, and his photographs of the starry band, with silhouetted or sometimes carefully illuminated landscapes in the foreground, are nothing less than awesome—in the original sense of that sadly overused adjective.

This professional photographer employs an array of cameras, both film and digital. Of course, he also owns a high-tech collection of lenses. Joe shoots in handheld and tripod mode (for longer exposures). In several formats, he takes single and multiple photographs, the latter combined to create expansive panoramas. He uses the latest computer programs as well to refine the images.

All of that said, there’s a fundamental gift at play here. It’s a genius for capturing the striking, the inspiring, the beautiful. Joe Whyte is a master of outdoor images.

A member of the Mountain Arts Network for nearly 15 years, Joe shows his photography at the group’s gallery on the lower level of Lake Arrowhead Village. His email address is joewhyte60@gmail.com.