Greg and Chrystal Mimbs
Murphy, NC - United States
Greg and Chrystal Mimbs - Fine Artist
Member Since: 01/10/2012
Greg and Chrystal Mimbs are photographers living in Murphy, North Carolina
Greg began his career as a photographer in 1976 in Dublin, Georgia working as a newspaper photographer and obtaining jobs photographing homes and autos for real estate brokers and car lots. In 1979 Greg attended the Photography School at North Georgia Tech in Clarkesville, Georgia. Joining the US Navy in December 1980, Greg attended the Navy School of Photography in Pensacola, Florida in 1981.
After leaving the Navy in 1986, Greg moved to North Georgia and worked as a self-employed wedding and portrait photographer. Teaching a few classes during the winters (the slow times for weddings and portraits) at Tri-County Community College and at the John C. Campbell Folk School, both in Murphy, North Carolina, Greg met Chrystal when she attended one of the photography classes he was teaching.
After their marriage in 1999, Greg Mimbs Photography became Mimbs Photography as Greg and Chrystal joined forces. For the next several years Greg and Chrystal would photograph weddings together and separately.
2001 saw an unexpected change in directions for Mimbs Photography after the couple took portrait of their English Bulldog. Chrystal made the off-hand comment that they should start photographing pets. After laughing about this for a few days, the idea starting taking root. Booking a pet portrait shoot in Knoxville, Tennessee which brought in over 90 pets the first day, a new direction for Mimbs Photography established itself.
Traveling from New York to Miami and as far west as Texas, Greg and Chrystal continued in the pet portrait business until 2004, when a phone call changed their lives and their business (see 'Early Start' http://fineartamerica.com/featured/early-start-greg-and-chrystal-mimbs.html for details).
Retirement:
A side story explains their retirement. Greg and Chrystal continued to teach an occasional photography class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Folk School (as the locals refer to it) are week long full day classes and are normally attended by people from out of state. Many of these students would contact Greg and Chrystal in advance of their class to as about other things to do while in the Western North Carolina Mountains. In order to more easily provide answers to these questions, Greg built a website in 1999 called 'Mountain Travel Guide.com' (http://www.mountaintravelguide.com), which, at that time, listed the trails and waterfalls in the Murphy, North Carolina area.
The website was a great success and grew. Today Mountain Travel Guide.com has over 28,000 pages (all typed by Greg) and covers the trails and waterfalls of 18 states. When the need to stop traveling arrived on October 15, 2004, the website was the financial answer. After finishing their already scheduled shoots, Greg and Chrystal retired to become full time parents.
Some of the photographs for sale on FAA are from their past days of traveling for weddings and pet portraits, some are more recent as they will never really leave photography.
