Bob and Ira Spring were fraternal twins born in Olympia, Washington on December 24, 1918 to parents Elliot Beebe Spring, an accountant, and Allena Loomis Spring, a teacher. The Spring children, while growing up in Shelton, Washington, engaged in outdoor activities with their parents from a young age. The twins acquired their first cameras through the Kodak Camera Company's 50th anniversary celebration promotional giveaway of a camera and a roll of film to any child twelve years old that year (born in 1918). In 1929 Bob and Ira were taken on a backpack trip to High Divide in the Olympic Mountains and they both became passionate about hiking and mountains. With their free cameras they roamed the trails exploring and taking photographs. Ira worked summers of 1937-1941 for the Rainier National Park Company in the Paradise Inn and managing the photo shop.

During World War II Bob served in Africa, Italy and Germany with an army field hospital as an x-ray technician. He took personal photographs of occupied and liberated Europe. Some of these photographs were donated to the Holocaust Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Ira served in the South Pacific as a ground photographer with the Army Air Corps.

After their release from the army at the end of World War II, Bob and Ira Spring set up a photography business in Seattle. The Seattle Times commissioned photographic spreads from the brothers for the Sunday edition photogravure section. In the 1950s, the Springs began to publish travel books featuring their photography. By 1967, the brothers decided to take on separate freelance jobs, but they continued to use the "Bob and Ira Spring" credit line for their solo works. Bob and his wife Norma concentrated their work on Alaska, producing several books on the people, wildlife, and the land. Members of the Society of American Travel Writers, they spoke and wrote about international travel as a means of promoting understanding and peaceful relationships between countries. They worked with Alaska Airlines to develop charter flights to the USSR during the 1970s. A significant part of Ira's career was his photography for the Mountaineers publications, which included the famous "100 Hikes" series, guidebooks to 100 hikes in a particular area. The books were very popular and even led to some overcrowding on the trails featured in the books after publication. Ira was an activist for protecting trails and access to the wilderness and became a founding member of the Washington Trails Association. He also served on the board of The Mountaineers and REI. In 1992 he received the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award.