My 10 Best Photos of 2025
- 8 hours ago
- 13 min read
It’s finally time for one of my favorite posts of the year – in fact, you could even say it is past time for my “Best of 2025” blog post! And you would be right. If you read my last post about the Fun of Film, you may have noticed I conspicuously did not discuss the delays inherent in getting it processed.
Why is that relevant? This year I shot more film than in 2024, enough that I considered it worthwhile to select five film photos and five digital photos for my Top 10. And the kicker is: shooting film in December of 2025 meant having to wait for it to be shipped, developed, and scanned before I knew whether or not I liked those particular shots.
Good thing I waited, too, since one of them made the list!
Before we actually get to the photos, I’d like to take a moment just to recap 2025. Changes at my work and in my personal life had me dealing with more than I planned on. That manifested in less photography overall. Going out to take photos required more intention, but that intentionality ultimately led to more fun actually taking the photos.
That’s a mindset I plan to keep for this year. I am hoping 2026 also brings calmer seas – and not just for me. The current state of the world is not lost on me as I write up my little summary on my little blog.
But for now, let’s look back on 2025 and the best moments I managed to capture.
10. New Mexican Sunset – Film
I am starting my list with this shot of a New Mexican sunset captured on film. I discovered the Galisteo Basin area earlier in 2025, during a spring trip to Santa Fe with my girlfriend. My first visit to the Galisteo Basin was at night, to attempt a panorama of the Milky Way, so I did not get to explore it as much as I wanted to.
Subsequent daytime scouting visits proved useful for finding overlooks and vistas, experimenting with composition and framing, and even figuring out what times of day worked best. This shot is the result of all that exploring and testing.
There is one extra component to this image that I like. My girlfriend’s parents have a variety of artworks in their home, many of which I noticed have a high horizon. A lot of my photography – particularly astrophotography – emphasizes the sky, so I tend to prioritize a low horizon. Seeing the art in their home, however, made me realize that tendency and want to break out of it.
I like to think it turned out well.
9. Peek-a-boo – Digital
My first digital entry for this post is one of my favorite encounters with coyotes I have had – so far. Lying just outside Denver, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a close, surprisingly expansive place to see wildlife. Herds of bison graze open fields that are home to prairie dogs, mice, and the animals that hunt them.
Opportunities to photograph coyotes are uncommon, at least for me. Their twilight schedules put them at odds with my telephoto lens, which functions best under bright light. And when I do manage to see them, they are often slinking through heavy scrub or far off in the distance – not close at hand.
This occasion was notable for me for two reasons. First, I had just wrapped up taking photos of birds and already had my long lens equipped. And second, these coyotes had just crossed the road in front of me, close enough to take what was essentially a portrait.
As an added bonus, the coyotes seemed to know I wanted to take their picture. After crossing the road (who knows why?), they paused long enough to let me pull over, get out, and snap this photo.
8. Great Sand Dunes on Ektachrome – Film
Over the past year, I made an intentional effort to try to use more film stocks beyond just Portra. Don’t get me wrong, I love that emulsion, but part of the fun of my great film experiment is to try new things.
One of my favorite results came from Kodak Ektachrome E100 – aka “slide film” or color reversal film. Unlike the other films I had used up until this summer, the negatives for this roll of film… weren’t even negative. Being able to hold the finished slide up to the light and see the finished image was incredibly satisfying. A real case of “what you see is what you get.”
There was one drawback worth mentioning. Ektachrome, and I think slide film in general, seems to have less exposure latitude than other color-negative films. Which is to say: scenes with high contrast turned out quite poorly. Evenly lit scenes, like this shot from the Great Sand Dunes, were delightful.
7. Aurora Over Lily Lake – Digital
One of my favorite shots from the past year for me came from another coronal mass ejection (CME) that impacted Earth. The two massive storms in 2024 were highlights for me – and the world – but also stood as geomagnetic anomalies. Most of the time, most of the ejections from the sun are not that powerful.
I was happy to see those storms when I did, but also somewhat regretful. Who knew when the next geomagnetic storm would be?
In the absence of any certainty, I moved to Loveland, CO, in mid 2025. I wanted to be closer to the mountains so I could leave “on a moment’s notice” if something arose. And as luck would have it, something definitely arose.
A massive CME from the sun was observed on November 10, with its speed and direction indicating a likely arrival by nightfall on November 11. This coincided with a third-quarter moon, so we could be sure of reasonably dark skies. However, the CME’s magnetic field orientation (and the likelihood of a show) would remain unknown until it arrived at the ACE satellite about one million miles from the Earth.
That gave me roughly a 45-minute lead time to make a decision – about the same time it would take to get to Rocky Mountain National Park. As it turned out, the magnetic field orientation was very favorable. The aurora was even visible in Loveland, shining through the glow of Fort Collins to the north.
I dropped everything and drove out to Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. This panoramic shot made the entire trip worth it.
6. Ristras at Night - Film
I spent Christmas in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with my girlfriend and her family. I was looking forward to new holiday traditions, eating great food, and shooting local scenes on film. My priority this time, though, was on low-light scenes.
Film has some unique characteristics, one of which I really wanted to experiment with: halation. As light passes through the emulsion layers on the film, it can reflect off the base layer of the film and then back into the emulsion. The end result is a glow (or halo) around highlights that often bleed into the shadow.
The effect is not necessarily always desirable but is fairly easy to produce if you try. Or at least, that is what I told myself. All I needed was a reliably dark scene with some reliably bright areas, almost like… Christmas lights.
Thankfully, Santa Fe has a pretty unique Christmas custom: the Canyon Road Farolito Walk. Canyon Road is renowned for its innumerable art galleries, many of which stay open late on Christmas Eve. The road itself is lit with Christmas lights, farolitos, and other luminaries so patrons may wander from one gallery to the next.
In a dark environment like this, longer shutter speeds were must. I would have normally used a tripod to stabilize the camera, but the crowds made that an impossibility. I simply tried my best to remain as still as possible – a challenge considering the cold temperatures.
One scene in particular caught my eye, a porch adorned with two ristras. Crimson lights illuminated the chilis, complemented by soft gallery light spilling through a window in the door. I took a moment to frame my photo, held my breath for stability – literally – and took my shot.
It was not until just last week that I got my results back. I think I successfully got the halation I wanted, though the film rendered the shadows much darker than I remember the scene being. Overall, though, I am pretty happy with how this turned out.
I’m excited to try more stuff like this in 2026!
5. Bear on the Big Thompson - Digital
This photo made the list simply by virtue of the sheer amount of time I have been waiting to capture it. Ever since I moved to Colorado in 2021, I have been waiting – searching, even – for a black bear to photograph. But as with almost all my wildlife encounters so far, you can’t force it to happen.
I spent a week in Boston for a work conference last August, and was absolutely worn out by the time I got home. I needed a break, I wanted some solo time, and I wanted to be in the mountains. So, in the greatest plot twist of all time, I decided to head out to Rocky Mountain National Park that weekend.
I saw nothing. The elk were surprisingly elusive, the moose mysteriously gone, and even the bighorn sheep hid away. But despite all the missing animals, I found it enjoyable simply to be in the mountains at all. I was content to return home without a photograph.
My drive home took me along the Big Thompson River, always an exciting journey. Shortly after I left Estes Park, I saw a bald eagle dive into the river just outside my passenger window. It rose again as I drove, triumphantly clutching a fresh trout. I thought about pulling over right then and there, but there was not a good place to do so. I carried on, still content to have simply borne witness.
Halfway through my drive home I saw a shape moving along the steep canyon walls. A dark, agile, bear-like shape. If good things come to those who wait, the universe had clearly grown impatient with me. This time I found a good place to pull over and spent well over an hour photographing a black bear.
The ultimate reward came when the bear descended down to the river itself, looking for a drink. It came to the river’s edge and paused to scan the area, and gave me one of my favorite wildlife shots to date.
4. The Path to Odessa Lake – Film
Ever since I visited Rocky Mountain National Park in 2021, I have been obsessed with embarking on an overnight adventure to capture the Milky Way from a wilderness campsite. My first real crack at that came in 2024 with a stay on Longs Peak. I did not capture what I wanted to, but I learned a lot about backpacking.
One of the lessons that stuck with me was “the best sites get booked early in the year.” I began 2025 with a list of potential campsites to vet, get my girlfriend’s thoughts, and attempt to book in the early spring. Our campsite of choice was Odessa Lake.
This site seemed ideal for a few reasons. The valley pointed southwest, so views of the Milky Way would be good. The distance to the site from the trailhead was just over 4 miles, much more manageable than the 6.5 up Longs. Fresh water streams meant we could save weight on our supplies, with a bonus “luxury” of a privy located a few hundred feet from the site.
I decided I had enough room in my gear weight budget to swing bringing along my 35mm film camera. It wouldn’t be great for astrophotography, but I hoped I could get some fun shots around camp or along the trail to get there. I am very glad I brought my film camera in retrospect; my space photos didn’t quite work out the way I wanted them to, but the film scans were excellent.
I took this shot roughly 3 miles into our 4-mile trek. Maria and I had just completed our 1,200-foot ascent over the main ridge and were about to begin our 500-foot descent to our campsite. Odessa Lake waited for us in the cradle of the valley below, with spires and towers of rock rising on all sides.
We ended up being able to see this spot from our campsite. But on this occasion, the view looking down was for once better than the view looking up.
3. Of Sand and Stars – Digital
Last year brought a lot of professional changes – and not just for me. My sister called me one day in the spring to let me know that she was suddenly looking for work. Her job was one of many casualties of the federal government’s new and austere approach to grantmaking.
I have been laid off before. I know what that’s like. And I also know that applying for jobs just to keep your head above water can be really draining. So, I decided to fly her out to Colorado for a week. I hoped the mountain air, scenic views, and physical distance from her old work in Chicago would act as a nice mental break.
Since I was the one who planned the whole thing, I very purposefully made sure it was over a new moon. I thought it would be a fun new experience for her to try stargazing outside of the city (with the added benefit of getting to drag her along for one of my hobbies).
But if I was going to do that, why not go all in and visit a world class sky? I ended up planning a two-day mini expedition to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, an International Dark Sky Park. My sister would feel right at home among skyscrapers of sand, the tallest dunes in North America.
We got there early enough in the afternoon to scout out some potential stargazing locations; the problem would be remembering where they were in the dark. I have found the sheer scale and nothingness of the dunes to be almost disorienting at night, but I was confident we would find our way.
When we returned that evening, we were armed only with our memories from the afternoon and a flashlight apiece. We ventured out into the darkness and eventually found our prime location from before: a flat area with some grass at the base of a perfectly shaped dune. The Milky Way was visible to the naked eye overhead, and the only sound was the wind.
I showed my sister how to light the sand with a flashlight before setting off to climb into frame. To avoid footprints in the foreground of the shot, I had to loop back the way we came and ascend the dune from the opposite side. I offered to be the one to manage the foreground lighting and have my sister stand silhouetted against the stars, but she was quite happy to stay put.
A few minutes later, we got this great shot. Thanks for your help, Rachal.
2. Elk-tachrome - Film
This next photo represents probably my best wildlife shot on film so far. This was back during the week of my sister’s visit to Colorado, during an evening walk around Lily Lake.
Lily Lake is a great place to take friends and family, especially visitors from low-lying parts of the country. As a loop just under a mile long and with less than 30 feet of total elevation gain, it makes for a perfect place to test a person’s acclimation.
This was where my girlfriend, my sister, and I all decided to take a post-dinner walk after he first full day in Colorado. We got off to a great start; after less than 5 minutes of walking we came upon two moose foraging for weeds. I tried taking photos of them, but the sunlight was quite harsh and the scans turned out poorly.
We continued on to the opposite side of the lake, where we encountered a solitary elk. By the look of his size and his antlers, this might have been his first summer striking out on his own. As he followed a natural trail of grasses and weeds, he stepped into the water and disturbed the mirror surface.
I knew if he continued on, he would eventually align with a perfect view down the length of the lake with the Twin Sisters Peaks behind. I hurried ahead and got my film camera dialed in – my range set, my shutter speed tuned, and my view composed. All I had to do was hope the film reproduced the scene well.
The elk stepped into frame and I was rewarded with this shot.
1. Milky Way on the Alpine Tundra
Rounding out this list is my favorite digital shot of the year, a real capstone photo for me.
In 2024, I befriended another hiker while on my inaugural backpacking trip up Longs Peak. As we parted ways on the trail we said, “keep in touch,” but I wasn’t too sure that would be a permanent thing. But him keeping in touch turned into an offer to get beers sometime, which became a dinner at his place, which evolved into regularly attending photography club meetings with him.
His name is Bill, and he became my friend.
Summertime in the mountains can be a bit tricky for astrophotography. Steep slopes and turbulent air mix to create unpredictable weather patterns. Often the only predictable summer weather pattern is unpredictability. This can lead to situations where the likelihood of cloud cover can be unknown in the days – or even hours – leading up to a given night. Plans can change on a dime, but the dreams certainly don’t.
As a fellow astrophotographer, Bill gets this. So, after a couple weeks of eyeing a visit to an alpine lake or the tundra, I was elated to receive a text from him asking my availability. The weather looked promising the following night and we had a plan of attack ready to go (from an earlier attempt that was clouded out).
We met up in Loveland around sunset and wasted no time driving out to the park. Our destination: the Rock Cut, elevation 12,100 feet. From there we hiked an additional half mile out and 150 feet up until we stood on the rooftop of Rocky Mountain National Park.
The glow of the Denver metro was visible to the east, but subdued. Afternoon thunderstorms that once covered the mountains now blocked much of the light seeping up from the plains. Overhead, the entirety of the Milky Way arced through the sky. I had to capture it.
And, with some prudent planning from Bill, I feel like I did.
Fun bonus fact: this photo was published in the December, 2025 issue of The Planetary Report! Over 40,000 people across the world got this photo delivered to them in a magazine, a feat of which I am honestly pretty proud.
And there you have it. You made it! This is the end of the blog post! I am already in the process of planning more regular blog posts for 2026 and 2027. Keep your eyes peeled for those.
If you liked this recap, please consider signing up for the Postcard Club! For $8 a year, you get two handwritten postcards from me with film photos I don’t publish anywhere else. The revenue from the club goes directly into maintaining the website.
But, as always, your readership is support enough. Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this long blog post, and thank you even more for supporting my photography. I hope you enjoyed reading about my 10 best photos of 2025!
Fly safe!
Zaak
My favs are the camera-ready coyotes, THAT BEAR (looks like you were within arm's reach!), and the elk! I love learning about what you're doing and that you're living your life so fully!!! p.s. please make sure I'm in the postcard club! LMK if you need updated card info :)