Hi, this is Mary. Thanks for taking the time to find out about us.
Neil and I have been married for a long time and we’re still talking. Actually we’re still working together and having a ton of fun. I’ve had a camera in my hand since puberty. I bought Neil a camera shortly after we met and we’ve been photographing together since.
Before getting into photography full time, I owned a medical diagnostics company, in Ontario, that brought in products from England, France, Australia and Finland and sold them to medical and food labs across Canada. Neil was a not so silent partner in the business but worked for other companies in the medical field.
We sold our business in 1996 and moved to the Okanagan.
As well as photography, I have been a Feng Shui consultant and a writer for Kelowna Now. Neil has done astrology charts and has also written two books www.neilanthes.com .
We dabble at painting, I use pastels and Neil works with acrylics. Surprisingly, I've sold one or two of my paintings. Neil also plays the piano well and I’m a downhill ski nut.
Over the years we have traveled extensively, always with our cameras in tow. We began as landscape photographers. I love hiking in national, state and provincial parks making photographs. Along the way, nieces and nephews (we have thirteen of them) got married and asked us to do their wedding photos and slowly we got into portraits and family portraits.
Business friends have asked us to do product, food and real estate photography so we’ve gradually added each of these disciplines to our work. As long as I have a camera in front of my face I’m in my happy place.
As well as taking photographs we enjoy teaching. We have been teaching for over four years and cover the basics of how to use a digital SLR camera as well as night photography, people photography, macro photography and a software organizing and editing software ( Lightroom). Our classes are not in a classroom (with the exception of the software program) but outside actually working with your own camera. It’s rewarding to see students get excited about something we love to do.
Personally, we’re friendly, organized, and like to have fun, particularly on a shoot. We love meeting people and learning about their interests and accomplishments.