My Favorite Photos of 2025
The year is coming to an end, and as I always do around this time of year, I’ve put together a list of my 10 favorite photos that I shot throughout the year. I’m still waiting to get 10 rolls back from the lab that I shot in London/Brighton, but if I had to guess, none of those will make this list.
It was really hard to make these choices, but here they are in chronological order. (I’ll probably second-guess my choices right after I publish this blog)
January - New York City
SONY A7IV + TTARTISAN AF 75MM F/2
Taken in Chinatown in NYC. I’ve walked by this spot countless times, but I never really paid any attention to it until one day in the winter, when the light was hitting it beautifully. It took a few minutes of waiting across the street to see if anyone would walk out, and it paid off. One of my favorite Facades shots of the year.
2. March - New York City
LEITZ-MINOLTA CL + FUJI 400
Getting this scan back blew my mind. I was dealing with loading/inconsistency issues with the CL and I guess I accidentally double exposed this frame and it was the happiest accident ever. From the light leak, to the subway lights perfectly sticking out of the guy’s eye — I couldn’t have (unintentionally) lined this up any better.
3. May - Tokyo
LEITZ-MINOLTA CL + CINESTILL 800T
Going to Japan was the highlight of the year, and I lot of my favorites came from this trip. The unintentional slight underexposure brought out the green shadows in this one that paired really nicely with the red of the train as it zoomed by. Aesthetically, I love this one.
4. May - Tokyo
LEITZ-MINOLTA CL + CINESTILL 800T
For a while, I though this photo was a “miss” because of the missed focus. I was using a collapsible lens and I guess I didn’t have it in the correct shooting position so it resulted in the focus being a bit off. After constantly going back to it, I realized that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it did. Besides, some of the most famous photographs are slightly out of focus.
5. May - Yokohama
SONY A7IV + SONY 24-50MM F/2.8 G
I took this photo on my 26th birthday on a little day trip from Tokyo to Yokohama. I’m really drawn to scenes that feature a body of water in them, and this was one of them. This was also one of my favorite edits of the year.
6. May - Tokyo
SONY A7IV + SONY 24-50MM F/2.8 G
One of my favorite things about Japan was the light — the way it spilled into the streets, how it illuminated people and their umbrellas, and how it created depth in this massive city. Seeing umbrellas during the day was not something I was used to, but I absolutely love it.
7. May - Kyoto
SONY A7IV + SONY 24-50MM F/2.8 G
The five days I spent in Kyoto were nowhere near enough. During an afternoon of roaming around aimlessly on my own, the light was hitting a glass door and illuminating the arm of someone inside the building but kept them mysterious. The left of the frame felt pretty empty until I was able to get a man riding his bike to fill that side.
8. July - New York City
SIGMA BF + SIGMA 35MM F/2 DG DN
I got to use the Sigma BF for about a month in the summer and I actually had a lot of fun using something so different. This photo is another one of my favorite facades of the year.
9. July - New York City
RICOH GR IIIx
This may arguably be my favorite photo of the year. Just after some heavy rainfall, the clouds broke open while I was in Washington Square Park and we came across the Salsa Social which happens every Wednesday evening. After a really slow day of photography, I came across this puddle reflection and took tons of shots — this one being the best.
10. October - New York City
LEICA M11-P + TTARTISAN 50MM F/1.4 ASPH
The best light in New York is during October (in my honest opinion). As the sun set in Williamsburg, I caught this scene of a girl being backlit by the golden hour light with the Manhattan skyline in the distance. It’s simple, but I really like it.
Honorable mentions
Here’s to another year of doing my favorite thing in the world.
