“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
— Ansel Adams

PARKLANE GALLERY PHOTOGRAPHERS

Let’s begin by defining what we mean when we say “fine art photography” as differentiated from other fields of photography such as photo-journalism, fashion, portraiture, etc. It involves a lot more than just point and click. At Parklane Gallery we have artists who use a camera instead of a brush as a means of creative expression that produces subject matter ranging from landscapes to wildlife to abstraction and beyond. Each offers a distinctive style and presentation that creates a unique artwork. Capturing an image is not a static process. It involves patience, ingenuity, skill and sometimes luck. Over time, new inventions and technology have allowed photographers to expand their capabilities by incorporating the use of lenses, filters and color as well as the change from using film to today’s digital technology. Using today’s computer software, they can manipulate light, shadow, contrast and color — along with skillful cropping and composition — to create mood, emotion and sometimes stark reality. They create visual stories that bring beauty into our lives.
There is also a wide range of presentations available. Our fine art photography offers traditional printing on paper with mat and glass within a frame; some that is printed on watercolor or other heavy paper and archivally sealed so it needs no glass for protection. Other presentations include printing on stretched canvas, much like a painting, or on shiny surfaces such as aluminum or acrylic.
Our fine art photographers would like to tell you in their own words how they interact with reality using a camera.

LISA MARIE KOSTAL: My love of photography began when I was a child. Using an inexpensive camera, black and white film, my father’s darkroom, and various combinations of film, chemicals, temperature, light, and paper, I learned to make images that mirrored how I saw the world. Back then, working with color film was prohibitively expensive. If I felt an image needed color to capture a certain mood or feeling, I was content to spend hours adding color by hand.
Today I still find great joy in composing, shooting, editing, printing, and preparing images for presentation. With the advent of digital, I now have the option of creating images in color, although I still love the meditative and creative possibilities of adding color by hand.
My hope is that once I finish a piece the viewer can feel a bit of the joy and grace I felt the moment I captured the image.

JEFF LANE:  I mostly use a Nikon D850 or a D5 for low-light situations with an array of Nikkor lenses. My framed prints are printed with archival paper and ink and laminated to prevent glare while protecting the print.
In order to improve my final images, I have taken classes, read, and expanded my technical knowledge. I’ve learned how to get better results using more and more powerful tools for the post-processing to take my images in a more artistic direction. Ongoing educational opportunities are a source of continued satisfaction. I have won both regional and national awards.
In order to capture wildlife, panoramic landscapes, and floral scenes, I have traveled to distant places and have been lucky enough to travel with expert photographers. It gives me great pleasure to share the beauty and excitement of my experiences with others through my photography.

LAREY McDANIEL:  I have a Sony A7Rlll full-frame mirrorless camera which I usually pair with a medium range (24 to 105 mm) zoom lens. I chose it because it would be noiseless when I am photographing musicians on stage at Benaroya Hall. I’ll use Adobe Lightroom to catalogue and pre-process my roughly 200,000 digital photographs and then finish them in Photoshop when I think I have one that should be printed. My creative process is much the same as when I had a darkroom, but without the smelly chemicals
Most of my work tends to be landscapes in color or monochrome and I’ll send my files to a local professional lab to have them printed on canvas, aluminum or metallic paper fused to acrylic. I also have a small studio in the back of the gallery where I take head shots of gallery members and make high resolution copies of artwork for artists.

PHYLLIS McDANIEL:  I shoot with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II with a 16-300 wide angle to telephoto zoom lens. My background as a professional musician influences the way I see and take images, catching optimal balance and harmony just as I would with voices or instruments. I met Larey when we were assigned to appear in recital as faculty members with a vocalist at Seattle’s Cornish School of the Arts. Since then we have toured Washington with the Northwoods Wind Quintet and explored the western United States with our cameras. I tend to focus on smaller subjects, like flora and fauna yet enjoy the challenge of capturing grand vistas.

ROB TILLEY:  I shoot with a Nikon D800 and various Nikon lenses. Using a full-frame camera allows me to make large prints, up to 40 X 60 inches. I like metal prints on aluminum and acrylic prints best. I enjoy shooting a variety of subjects that includes nature, culture, abstracts and photos that I take as I travel the world.
While most graphic arts start with a blank canvas, photography is the exact opposite. A photographer’s greatest challenge is to create order out of chaos. Often what is left out of an image is just as important as what is included. I want my images to be graphically bold and simple, but also emotionally moving. I enjoy the impact of color, texture, patterns and design which are all musicians that pull the strings of our emotions. I hope my images reveal the astonishing beauty and patterns that are often overlooked in places both near and far.

 “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”

—Ansel Adams