2025 was another succeful year for my photography. I was fortunate enough to visit some new places, including 5 new national parks!

Every year I like to gather my best photos from the past twelve months and make a post sharing my favorites. In recent years, and especially in 2025, I feel like my best photos have never been seen before. Even by me! If you follow along with my social media accounts, you may have noticed as of late that I don’t share as much as I used to. It’s not because I’m not out there taking photos, it’s just seems like I love taking photos more than I love developing them. So they sit on my hard drive, mostly unseen. I’m not sure why that is. Social media fatigue, I suppose. But I realize that many people do like to see what I am out capturing so I hope to be better about that in 2026.

As for how 2025 went. It was a year of new experiences for me.

One of the new places I visited was Banff, Alberta, Canada in early February. That was an incredible experience! Banff is one of the most beautiful and epic places I have ever visited. The mountains are absolutely stunning. And the area of rugged wilderness is extremely vast. Driving the Icefields Parkway, between Banff and Jasper, should be on everyone’s bucket list. It is easily the most stunning drive I have done. It’s very long, epic, and there’s the most stunning mountainous landscape around every corner. My visit to the area was during an extremely cold snap. Daily highs hovered around -20°F. It was cold, but it was amazing! I have always loved shooting in cold weather.

In June, my family and I joined with some family on a visit to Gatlinburg, Tennessee which is of course the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg itself reminding me a lot of Wisconsin Dells on a much larger scale, but I loved it! The attractions were quite fun for the family. Dolly Parton’s Stampede show was a highlight! In between family adventures, I was able to sneak away with my camera and head up to the Smokies for some morning and evening photography. The Smokies definitely earn that name with the almost constant fog the envelopes the mountains. The mountains are not large like the rockies, but they are no less beautiful. A highlight for me was getting a chance for some impromptu wildlife photos when a couple black bears made an appearing on a morning visit through Cade’s Cove.

Finally, in July I had a very quick and last minute trip out to Mt. Rainier National PArk in Washington. I have always wanted to visit this mountain and it didn’t disappoint. I spend a couple night camping in the park and visiting all sides of the mountain for several day hikes and landscape photography sessions.

Not to forget about my muse, Door County! This beautiful place I call home provided so many photo opportunities as it always does. From the deep freeze of January, to the cherry blossoms, to the fall colors, and an incredible aurora borealis appearance, I was incredibly happy with many of the photos I was able to take without going far from home. All of which seem to be taken with my drone, which was definitely my camera of choice this year.

My favorite photo of the year was probably a northern lights photo taken from Anderson Dock in Ephraim in mid-November. You can see that below.

As for my favorite photos of the year, I have them all below. These are all listed in the order that they were taken. Many of them are from my travels, but some were taken right here in Door County too. You will notice that the theme of the year was definitely “fog.” haha

Thanks for following along and I can’t wait to see that’s in store for 2026!

I love shooting during cold snaps. I love how the ice can form on familiar landmarks and how beautiful the winter light can be. This photo was taken during January 2025 when temperatures were below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I loved the afternoon’s soft light and how it fell on the landscape creating soft highlights and even transition to shadows.

This was taken with my drone and created from a panorama to show a very wide angle view.

Another drone photo taken during January’s cold snap. This photo was taken from above the Sturgeon Bay shipping canal. The cold temperatures created a very thin layer of textured ice inside the protection of the breakwater. This icy contrasted with the smooth open water beyond the breakwater.

For my first morning in the Canadian Rockies during my winter trip to Alberta, I knew where I wanted to go. Abraham Lake. I was looking forward to exploring the icy landscape of the frozen lake surrounded by mountains. It did not disappoint! I had a very beautiful sunrise when the clouds decided to break very selectively to reveal distant mountains. For this photo, I wanted to highlight the ice, the snow on the ice, and the beautiful mountains and light peeking out from the morning clouds.

I got very lucky that the breaks happened otherwise it would have been a very gloomy and dull morning.

This is one of my favorite photos from Banff National Park. On a very cold morning, I parked my car at a seemingly random spot along the Icefields Parkway because I researched this area around the frozen river in the valley and knew had a lot of potential.

Again, the morning clouds began to break at just the right time. The light coming through revealed the mountain almost like a shadowy figure coming in to the light.

This photo was taken in Jasper National Park in an area along the Icefields Parkway that was not as affected by the devastating wildfire they recently experienced. I love how the evergreen trees retained color even as the morning snow decorated the lower branches.

Zooming in with me 50-400mm lens, I was able to compress the distant layers to show the beauty of the scene.

This view stopped me in my tracks. The sunrise appeared from behind the mountains in Jasper National Park and revealed a beautiful scene of light, shadow, and mountains.

This is a simple image, but I just love the quality of the light and how it is reacting with the landscape.

During a morning walk along a frozen lakeshore, I found some very interesting deadwood and knew I wanted to create an image with it. I got my camera very close, basically inside this dead tree and used the branches and roots to frame the impressive Mt. Chephren as the morning light starts to illuminate the landscape.

This photo is change of pace, to be sure. From the cold and snowy mountains of Canada, this shot brings me to the warm and sunny Carribean shores of Mexico.

This is another very simple image found as I searched for more interesting and artful photos of seemingly simple scenes. Which was a goal of mine earlier this year. This shot is not an epic landscape, but a simple corner of a building. Bright and beautiful colors placed against a bright, beautiful, and blue sky.

Back to Door County and my favorite time of year. Cherry Blossoms season! When the sun gets lower in the sky, that’s when the interesting light shows up. Looking down on the orchrd outside of Egg Harbor, the setting sun created a beautiful scene of light and shadow throughout the rows of the orchard.

On a late day visit through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I found a little spot along the river where the fog made a beautiful scene. Fog is probably my favorite condition to photograph because I love the moody feeling it brings to images. And the Smokies did not disappoint!

This image shows rapids, smoothed by a slow shutter, as they passed around mossy rocks beneath the thick canopy of the forest.

In the high country of the Smokies, intimate scenes are all over. Whenever I’m in the high country of any mountain range, I always use the super-telephoto lens to get in close to smaller scenes. The possibilities are literally endless and it is very fun to look for small scenes among the vast layers of mountains and valleys. Add in a little “smoke” and you can find some amazing photographs.

Capturing this photo was the most fun I’ve ever had taking a single photograph. I was driving along a quiet road in the Smokies and this bear ran across the road a little ahead of me. So I pulled over to watch what it might be up to. It was just on a morning stroll, not concerned about me or my car. As it crossed the road again, I saw it was heading to this opening. I knew that was the shot! So I framed the scene and waited for it to walk perfectly in to my shot.

I credit this photo to my years of shooting weddings. I had to react quickly to examine the scene, anticipate my subject, and create a photo idea. Much in the same way I do every weekend at weddings.

Another foggy forest. During a hike, low clouds covered the entire area with a thick fog. It wasn’t the best situation for viewing the vast landscapes of the Smokies, but the moody forest was unbeatable!

I love how the tree in the center of the image was framed by the two mangled trees in the foreground. The bright sky seen behind the dark forest created a wonderful contrasty scene.

This photo is from a short hike along the Appalachian Trail that crosses through the Smoky Mountains. The same fog from the previous photo just makes this scene look like a fairytail.

In Mt. Rainier National Park, a morning hike brought be through this beautiful scene. The early morning sun lit up this scene with a beauful, soft, and warm light. The low clouds added interest to the scene.

This is a very popular scene with a very popular lake in the foreground. But I love this photo, nonetheless! After a very nutritious and delicious dinner of a freeze dried backpacker meal, I headed up the road for an easy roadside sunset. There was not any interesting clouds in the sky, but that was not needed in my opinion. The backlight of the setting sun gave a beautiful aura to the scene as Mt Rainier stood tall in the distance.

This is the reason I wanted to go to Mt Rainier National Park. The wildflowers. I may have been a bit early for peak wildflowers, but I was able to find some beautiful scenes all along every hiking trail.

This area on the eastern side of Mt Rainier was a perfect a spot to find some flowers at sunrise. I framed this little scene just as alpenglow made it’s way down the mountain.

You just can’t skip the winding road in fall. I only shoot this road once per year, and it’s always in fall. Every visit, I try to find a new way to compose this road. The drone helped me out this year and the beautiful morning light illuminated the peak fall colors.

I shot this photo from my kitchen table. Not kidding. I was testing a new drone and sent it over some land near my house. A fall fog filled the landscape and the morning sun played with the landscape in a beautiful way. In my opinion, this is definitely one of the most interesting photos I’ve created all year.

If I was forced to pick a favorite photo of 2025, this would be it. I headed out during the big solar storm of November 12 and stopped at a few places on the bayside of the peninsula. After making a few photos from within Peninsula State Park, I stopped at my favorite building in Ephraim.

The auroras were incredibly strong that evening and you could see the pulses of the storm directly above your head.

Thanks for making it this far and for reliving 2025 with me!  I am very much looking forward to see what 2026 will bring.  I’m not sure what my photography goals are for the new year, but I have some new shooting techniques that I will be trying out.  I will be excited to share with you what I will capture.

I wish you a great new year and a happy 2026!