Larey McDaniel has been a member of Parklane Gallery since 2002, and for many years, as a Board member has served as either treasurer or president of the gallery. He is currently Parklane Gallery’s spotlight artist for October.

McDaniel received his first clarinet and his first camera at about the same time. He’s been enthralled with both art forms ever since and has created a professional life that neatly intertwines the two.

His fifth grade year, he inaugurated his new Kodak Brownie camera on a family trip to Glacier National Park. His music studies began in the fourth grade at his Bremerton elementary school and continued through his college years as a student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He became a clarinetist with the Seattle Symphony in 1960.

“McD” has been taking photos professionally since his college years when he served as a photographer for touring music groups at Oberlin. He now presents his fine art photography in juried art shows and galleries (he has even “soloed” with shows of his photography on the walls of Seattle Opera’s McCaw Hall), and takes photographs of paintings and 3-D art in his studio at Parklane Gallery.

McDaniel cites the rapid evolution of digital cameras and image-editing software as the factor that has most fueled his passion for photography.

As an artist, he seeks “interesting” effects via careful manipulation of images. One of his goals as a photographer is to create highly defined realism with visible detail from the lightest to the darkest areas of a scene.

Parklane Gallery is located at 130 Park Lane , Kirkland. For information, call (425) 827-1462.