I’m giving myself a bit of leeway in my definition of “2025” this year since the major photographic trip I took actually occurred in very late 2024, after I posted my Best of 2024 collection. I’ve also allowed myself a 20 picture limit this year since sticking with 12 or 15 would leave me with an impossible job given the number of images I shot while in Antarctica. Hopefully you’ll excuse my indulgence but, without further ado, here are my favourite images shot over the last 12 months shown in chronological order.
The preserved whaling station at Grytviken, South Georgia was a dream location with all those amazing rusty textures and absolutely no problem finding a dramatic background. I ended up with at least a couple of dozen print-worthy images so picked one more or less at random for my favourite set. You can find a gallery of other images from this visit here.
The most amazing location of our trip was undoubtedly St. Andrews Bay in South Georgia which yielded this image and the next one. The sheer number of King Penguins in the rookery there was almost unbelievable and the stunning mountain and glacier backgrounds couldn’t be beaten. Our early morning visit on a somewhat overcast day, although initially disappointing, actually ended up resulting in images that I definitely prefer compared to the penguin images taken in sunshine the previous afternoon.
The number of penguins in the St. Andrews Bay rookery was absolutely amazing and offered the possibility of pictures like this which are almost abstract.
I couldn’t have a favourites set without at least one image of some of the Fur Seals on South Georgia. The pups were incredibly cute but these juveniles playing in the water beat them to the cut when I was picking a shot.
King Haakon bay on South Georgia’s west coast is often difficult to get to due to the prevailing wind but we were lucky and spent half a day there absorbing the scenery and tracing Sir Ernest Shackleton’s footsteps, at least for a few hundred yards in the area around Camp Peggotty where he and 5 expedition members finally landed after their 17 day, 850 mile sail from Elephant Island in a lifeboat. In retrospect, I wish I had read all the Shackleton books I’ve read since the trip before I went!
I loved the diversity of texture and shape on all the icebergs we saw around the Antarctic peninsula. Some of the best were in an “iceberg graveyard” near Petermann Island where large bergs would run aground. As with many of the choices in this set, this image is one of about a dozen I could have picked from that day.
We watched this lone penguin struggling onto the iceberg and slip and slide its way up the initial incline before pausing to catch its breath (or check out the weird zodiac full of brightly-colored folks brandishing large cameras).
I had to include this image because it won the award for best wildlife photo in the end-of-trip onboard photography contest. I think it’s also the picture that I waited the longest to catch – those chicks were not keen to show their faces and it took 15 or 20 minutes of waiting before I could capture a shot with both of them visible.
Returning home, I’ve continued my project to document Austin’s evolving skyline. This image of the new Rainey Street district was taken in March and can be found in the 2026 Big Weekend Austin Events calendar.
Founders Day in Dripping Springs always offers some great opportunities for pictures and this shot of some of the scouts from Troop 280 may be my favourite frame of the year. I couldn’t have asked for a better background and the brisk breeze really helped put the flags in just the right positions.
I continued to do senior portraits this year and Hannah’s session in May was really great. Some people just light up in front of a camera and I think every single frame I took of Hannah ended up looking like a keeper. Although this is a very simple shot, I picked it since I love the overall soft feel created by framing the image through a bush.
Once again, Dripping Springs Rodeo in late May was a photo highlight mostly due to the amazing access I have at the Ranch Park. Up on the chutes, I try to capture images that are more than just a cowboy on a horse or bull and I’m quite happy with this one.
In July, we broke with convention and organized a NxNW trip to Pittsburgh for urban photography rather than our usual landscape-centric expeditions. This proved a great success and a highlight was a visit to the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark which offered loads of fascinating, rusty textures.
Downtown Pittsburgh was a revelation. I had never visited before and expected a somewhat run-down, post-industrial city but, instead, found a vibrant downtown with a great deal of new development and really exciting atmosphere. I took this image during a photowalk near the city centre and love the patterns in the facade of the building.
August saw another trip back to Scotland and a couple of days in New Lanark. I broke out the infra-red camera to capture something different from the usual images I take there and ended up with several frames that I’m proud of including this one of the Counting House.
The first weekend in September saw the return of World Endurance Championship racing at Circuit of the Americas and, for the first time in a while, I was covering the event for a newspaper and had a media credential. You can call this image either iconic or clichéed but I still love photographing from Turn 10 with the amazing background created by the huge Texas flag at Turn 7.
We had sun on WEC Friday but, by race day on Sunday, the rain had set in and everyone was getting rather damp. Just before the start of the race, I got talking to Phil Goodge who was marshaling just before Turn 1. He had traveled from the UK to volunteer for the race and was showing some British spirit so I asked if I could take his portrait. The multi-national red, white and blue elements really appealed to me and he seemed pretty happy with the result too.
On my third attempt, I finally got to Dallas before sunset, on a day with decent weather, and managed to get some good downtown skyline images. This one is the best of the bunch but next time I would love to have a UT logo on the Marriott hotel rather than the OU colours. Maybe next year?
I took many pictures of Hailey this year at various UT games but this one from the Cotton Bowl game against Oklahoma in Dallas stands out to me. I had my camera on a monopod with a fisheye and flash attached giving this weird and wonderful composition.
In October, I spent a week working from Santa Fe and managed to get up in to the mountains one afternoon. I missed the best of the aspen colour but there were still a few golden stands such as this one. The dreamy atmosphere was achieved by using a long, 1/3 second, exposure and intentionally flicking the camera upwards during it. With luck, I managed to time the flick just right in this frame to get a sharp core image with underlying streaks. This kind of image is usually hit-or-miss but, when it hits, the results can be magical.
Dave, these are truly fantastic!
