2016 In Review - Well Sort of...

What a Week! Christmas has come and gone, and as we reflect back on 2016, we are humbled and amazed! Before highlighting back, let's just look at the 5 days since waking up Christmas morning.

After opening presents to one and other, Julie opened her email to discover that she had been featured in an article "20 Fabulous Tree Pictures " by Gurushots – the competition site that they both compete on.


By Wednesday, Bob was working his magic in a competition on the site for "Inspiring Architecture". Suffice it to say that it was a long night and by the wee hours Thursday morning, Bob was in 1st place. Over 4900 photographers competing with almost 18,000 photos boiled down, as he had predicted, to a photo finish (Pun intended). 

Bob won his 1st international photo competition by 15 votes!

 Shortly after the competition ended, Julie received another email from Gurushots indicating that once again, she had been featured in another article, "Now That's A Face Only A Mother Could Love!"

WOW! What a busy 4 days! I'm so exhausted from that – I think we'll just summarize the earlier part of the year as follows:

6 months spent planning a trip to Ireland and Scotland for a photo shoot. (Working Holiday)
Now throughout this process,  remember that Julie has been Beta testing a new photography product for market, and was chosen to be the first Product Ambassador for the Cambuddy Pro!

 For weeks she was working with this wonderful device, trying things that she never imagined herself doing.  Part of the planning included taking the first CamBuddy Pro to the UK and showing it off to fellow photographers as they traveled the countryside.

Shirts and Business Cards were printed (along with a couple of really neat mouse pads) and everything was looking good.  Even one of the drones was packed and ready to fly those lush mountains and lochs!

And then the one guy you NEVER want to see in your town arrives...


Then came Hurricane Matthew the day before departure and cancels their trip for them. Fence downed and power lost for 4 days. Major depressed state – cancel vacation and return to the phone factory for Bob to help restore phones, internet, and TV for everyone impacted by the storm.

Fast forward 3 weeks ( and 250 hours of work) and service has been restored, Bob is told by his supervisor to take his vacation. Sensing this was coming, Julie had been working feverishly investigating alternative plans. New plans were made, and the two dispatched for London to spend 18 days traveling 2000 miles throughout England and Scotland. 11,000 photos were taken, a few pints downed, and a long flight back to Orlando left these two haggard photographers exhausted but exhilarated.



They both started processing photos, and through Gurushots were invited to exhibit a photo each in an Art Show in Thessaloniki, Greece, which they did. For both, this was their first International Exhibition. As you can tell, the 4th quarter was hectic to say the least, and both are awaiting word back about another Art Show in January 2017 in Berlin that both are expecting to show in.

Julie and Bob both compete on a regular basis on Gurushots. Julie holds the highest level available on the sight – she is a Guru. Bob holds the 2nd level title of Master. With this win, Bob only has one more task ahead of him to be bestowed with the coveted title of Guru. Be sure to follow them both on Facebook for up to date status, links to their competitions, and special offerings they have for you!

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