Daphne graduated from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1987 and opened her own portrait studio shortly thereafter, where she built a thriving business specializing in portraits of children and their families in story telling sets or natural surroundings. Art began doing commercial photography at the same time.

Carlyle Portraits was early into the digital revolution and has kept up with the new technologies ever since. Art and Daphne studied under leaders in the field at Image Exploration School on Vancouver Island.