About

Larey McDaniel got his first clarinet and his first camera at about the same time. His music studies began in the fourth grade at his Bremerton elementary school. The following year, he inaugurated his new Kodak Brownie camera on a family trip to Glacier National Park. He’s been enthralled with both art forms ever since, and created a professional life that neatly intertwines the two. When Larey joined the Seattle Symphony in 1960, its schedule allowed him and and his wife, Phyllis who is also a musician, to develop a thriving summer business as wedding photographers. He says landscapes offer different challenges than brides and grooms. “Photographing a wedding is like playing a concert without a rehearsal, and you only have one chance to get it right. Each kind of photography has its own set of problems and solutions. Every shoot draws on the experience of all previous ones, but with all the excitement of a new and different challenge.”