Bobbie and Michael Paulson met in 1978 at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Mike had started his career as a Medical Photographer at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson in 1974. In 1977, he was hired by St Joseph’s Hospital and moved to Phoenix. Bobbie was originally hired as a typographer at St. Joseph’s and was promoted to Production Manager of the Media Services Department. The Media Services Department provided photography, motion picture, graphic design, medical illustration, presentation graphics, and audio-visual services to various departments within the hospital.

Eventually, in 1985, Bobbie and Michael founded Paulson Photographic Communications, an independent company specializing in photography and presentation graphics for the central Arizona medical community. The services included headshots, group photos, event photography, surgery photos, ophthalmic photography, processing of fluorescein angiogram films, and presentation graphics for medical education. Mike was the face of the company, the “man behind the camera”, and Bobbie was the Office Manager, Bookkeeper, and Human Resources Director. From the 1980s through the mid-2000s, the company maintained a small staff of four to seven employees.

As technology changed, so did the services and methods of photography. The slide presentations for medical education evolved from film to PowerPoint during the 1990s. Photography changed from film to digital between 2000 and 2004. By 2005, the darkroom and film cameras had become obsolete, and all assignments were done using digital equipment, with image processing done on the computer and deliveries made via e-mail.

As the methods of photography changed, the need for employees decreased, and by 2006, Mike and Bobbie were the only employees. They leased a smaller office and studio in the Maricopa County Medical Society building on Coronado Road in central Phoenix and continued to serve the medical community until the sale of the company in August of 2024.