PORT NECHES — Leo Weeks Photographers has been the mainstay for many folks in the Mid-County area and Thursday the business celebrated tis 50^th anniversary.

Heidi Howard, granddaughter of Leo and Mary Weeks, is the current owner and a near lifelong photographer. She shed some light on the history of the business, its many firsts, and the future.

Howard said her grandfather was in the Navy and was studying at the University of Maryland when he came to port in Port Arthur. Mary was working under another photographer at a time when photographers would go to bars to take pictures and sell them.

Leo saw her from across the room and asked her boss if he could ask her to dance when they had a down time.

The two hit it off, got engaged that night and married shortly after in 1953.

The studio opened in 1968 under the name Leo Weeks.

“This was at a time when women weren’t allowed to have their own bank account,” Howard said.

Mary Weeks, Howard said, “had the artistry down” and used cords on lights and measured distance to make each shot perfect.

Ruth Weeks Todd, Howard’s mom and daughter of Leo and Mary Weeks, told of how in either 1972 or 1973, her parents perfected the use of color film on action shots.

“One night (while shooting a high school football game) my mom had four shots left on some film after shooting a wedding,” Todd said. She worked on some settings and got the shots.

A Kodak representative would visit weekly and tell them it couldn’t be done — at this time there was no fast speed color film.

“He (the rep) said ‘it won’t hold’ and she said ‘yes, it will.’ He started coming in every week and watching the process, writing down the steps,” she said, adding that the process eventually worked and the couple blew the photos up large scale and placed them in the shop window. Passersby almost busted the glass to get a look at the photos.

Many people, Howard said, thought Leo Weeks was the main photographer but he wasn’t. It was Mary Weeks who would pass down her knowledge to others.

Howard remembers receiving her first camera — a 35mm Pentax, at age 5. When her grandparents would shoot football games they would sit her in the bleachers with her camera and tell her to snap away.

By age 7 she was developing film and learned the business.

Even when a lot of amateur photographers raised their prices astronomically, Mary Weeks stayed fair.

“Grandma always said every person should be able to have at least one professional photo taken so she kept it affordable,” Howard said. “We’re here for the community and that’s why we’ve been here as long as we have.”

The future looks bright for the generational business.

“We are looking to get back to our roots,” Howard said, meaning portrait photography.

They are also looking to bring back kids camps.

Leo Weeks Photographers is located at 1310 Port Neches Ave., Port Neches.