My Favorite Photography Moments of 2025
At the beginning of each new year, we wish each other a good New Year…or Happy New Year to be more specific. Little do we know if said New Year will actually be a good one. Only time will tell…
As for myself, the year 2025 passed so fast. I did not see it fly by. It felt like when you wake up in the morning and look at the clock only to see that the alarm will ring in a few minutes. I seriously felt like 2025 was fast forwarded all the way to December. It was not! It was a very busy year in general. I had many opportunities to travel throughout the year as per usual and had some amazing photography moments along the way. In this article, I want to share my Top 12 favorite photography moments of 2025. Some are funny, some will blow your mind while others could potentially give you goose bumps…all I can say is every one of them truly was memorable for me. And by the way, these aren’t in any specific order…my favorite one could be in the middle of the pack.
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ICE ICE BABY
I have been visiting Mount Chephren for years. It has a very special place in my heart and I even call it « MY MOUNTAIN »! It’s not like people have to pay me every time they go to Mount Chephren…I actually allow everybody to go for free…but it’s still mine! HAHAHA! Enough with the silliness…I truly love that peak. When you drive down the Icefield Parkway from Peyto Lake, you will hit a few lovely curves before that tall guy shows up right in front of you and waves. In many occasions, it will be shy and hide behind the clouds…but when you can actually see it, what a presence it has!
While there, I probably had one of the loveliest sunrises ever back in 2021…it was cold, I had some great clouds and the foregrounds were untouched. Everything was perfect and I never thought I would be able to match that sunrise. Since then, I returned over and over and never had another spectacular moment. I had pretty light but with questionable foregrounds or no clouds at all…until January 2025 when I brought a friend who was visiting the Canadian Rockies for the very first time. It was cold, -25 to be more specific so I knew the foreground was going to be rich in detail, the sky had just the right amount of clouds and we had some lovely side light on Mount Chephren. He was truly lucky to have THE perfect conditions for his first visit there. And I was a very happy man to be able to once more have an image I am extremely proud of.
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A REWARD TO REMEMBER
My last time in Ireland was back in 2019. That meant it had been 6 years since my last visit to that absolutely amazing country. To say I was excited to go back was a big understatement. I truly love Ireland. In fact, other than my own country, if I had to choose a place where I would live in the world, it would definitely be Ireland. Ireland simply has it all!
When traveling to Ireland from Canada, you will obviously need to fly on an overnight flight. It has its pros and cons…being able to fly overnight means you don’t lose a full day transiting. You can sleep in the plane, true? Definitely not for me. I can’t sleep on a plane. That means flying overnight is a bit tough. When I landed in Dublin, I needed to wait for Gina who was flying from Calgary…then we took possession of the rental car and drove almost four hours to our Airbnb, unloaded our luggage, went to buy some food then drove an extra hour to Malin Head for sunset. Since the days are extremely long in Ireland during the summer season, that meant we weren’t about to go to bed just yet. The sun was setting at 10:15PM and we still had 2 hours to go before sunset. When we arrived to Malin Head, we had to walk to the spot I had in mind, explored for composition potential, chilled while enjoying the ocean breeze and the view. At this point, I was at almost 40 hours without sleep…I was starting to feel a bit tired. And then came the moment when the sun was approaching the horizon. It was a perfect moment and it re-energized me for a while! Enough to drive back to the Airbnb
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STARING AT HEAVEN’S DOOR
There is something truly amazing about Norway…since Norway has many fjords, that also means it has thousands of beaches. And when you truly love to photograph seascapes like I do, you know you are in for some incredible photography opportunities. What makes fjords even more amazing for a landscape photographer, you can photograph amazing surfs crashing against boulders on the beach and still have great background interest on the other side of the fjord. That’s when Mother Nature cooperates of course. If it gets too cloudy, you won’t even get to see across the fjords.
That specific beach was just across the street from our Airbnb. That’s correct, we simply had to go out and walk on the other side of the road to our shooting location. Sulaiman, Uddy and I decided to go to our beach for sunset since the sky was looking promising and the tide was also in our favor. The ocean was a bit rough so we needed to be careful with every wave coming in…the light went from good to great to amazing in such a short period of time. The sun was able to find a small opening in the clouds and gave us what Norway does best: Dramatic Seascapes. Right after I shot that image, I noticed that the waves were become a bit too rowdy for my preference so I decided to take my camera to a safer spot. It’s a good thing I did because both Sulaiman and Uddy got wet right after I left!
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THE SMELL OF AUTUMN
I live on the Eastern side of Canada, on South Shore of Montreal to be more specific. And I must admit that landscape photography has always been very limited and challenging. There simply isn’t much to photograph around my house. I have to drive for hours to reach something decent. Back in 2023, I decided to go to New York and Pennsylvania for the fall colors. I had pretty low expectations. I was expecting to photograph a few waterfalls surrounded by some colorful trees and that’s it. Boy was I wrong! I was truly amazed by all the beauty that that area has to offer. I loved it to a point that places like Pacific North West left me with a feeling of not being completely satisfied. That’s correct, I enjoyed New York and Pennsylvania more! The beauty of it is I can drive there in just a few hours…
In October 2025, I decided to return at the very last minute. I reserved a lovely apartment 15 minutes away from all the goodness. On October 22nd, my birthday morning, I went back to Ricketts Glen State Park. You may ask what makes that place so special? How about 20 plus waterfalls on one single loop trail? Yeah…hours and hours of fun for the landscape photographer in me! And Mother Nature was very nice for my Birthday. She gave me some lovely atmospheric conditions to work with!
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EMPIRE OF ANGELS
You remember that previous image Staring at Heaven’s Door? After photographing that beach for a little while, I recommended to my two friends that we could possibly move to another location which is almost just a stone throw away. And that seriously goes against one of my most important landscape photography principles. I won’t try to hunt two rabbits at the same time. The end results of doing so could mean we could lose both rabbits. In other word, it’s risky but the light could have become even better at the beach and/or we could miss it at the other location. But since we already had amazing images from that beach, why not risk it and try to get amazing light else where too? The guys both agreed so we moved…
Molneva Waterfalls is a favorite of mine in the Lofoten Islands. It’s a real playground and offers countless foreground opportunities. Of course, since I always carry my waders, I was able to venture even further onto the scene and find even greater foregrounds. I truly loved that composition with every triangle and the abundance of diagonal lines throughout the landscape. Surprisingly enough, just a few days prior to this, when we initially arrived to Lofoten Islands, all that landscape was covered with snow. But since the weather had been abnormally warm, all the snow melted. The waterfalls were also flowing abundantly thanks to the melt down! One question remains unanswered: Did we catch epic light there too? Of course we did!
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IN ALL ITS GREATNESS
We had a very hot and dry summer on the Eastern side of North America. Such conditions are worrisome since they bring a serious danger of wildfires. I can’t stand hot sticky weather. I am the kind of guy that goes to the Canadian Rockies during winter and on a -10 celsius day, I will walk around with my jacket fully unzipped and I’ll be saying: It’s so nice and warm outside!
I simply couldn’t stand the hot weather in Montreal and decided last minute to go where it would be cooler…New Brunswick! And was I wrong! New Brunswick was also hit by the same severe heat wave. On the evening I got there, all the trails I wanted to hike were closed for security reasons. Wildfire Danger was so extreme that all the trails in the Maritimes were closed. There was one place at the top of my list that I really wanted to visit: Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. Thankfully, that one wasn’t closed. I planned the perfect morning to go for sunrise based on the optimal tide. Since the tide can swing well over 10 meters, you have to plan wisely otherwise you won’t even be able to go on the beach.
The park technically opens at 8AM but I got there at 5:45, hiked to the beach, made my way down the stairs and the fun began. I had the whole footprint free pristine beach to myself for over two hours. That place can be so busy during the day…having the privilege to be there on my own was priceless and made the whole trip to New Brunswick worth it even though all other trails were closed. After I was done photographing Hopewell Rocks, I made my way out of the park and felt so happy and relaxed! What a morning that was.
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
That image was literally ten years in the making… You may ask how could it take me ten years? First time I visited Crohy Head Sea Arch in 2015, I simply couldn’t find my way down to the beach and the sunset was about to happen. Simply ran out of time and we were on a schedule so I couldn’t give it another try the next day. Second time in Ireland, I didn’t have time to go all the way east. It was out of my way. When I went for a third time in 2019, I planned two nights near the arch. I truly wanted to bag a shot. Once again, it didn’t happen, The tide was too high on the first night. And for the second night, I had to lock myself on the beach at high tide and waited hours for sunset which ended up being boring. A local lady even called the local police after seeing my car parked there for hours. She thought I was in trouble…Police came to look for me, they even called the coast guard to get me out of there. But I wasn’t in any danger and simply walked out of there with my waders on when the tide was low enough.
Then 2025 came. Since I had been telling Gina how awesome Ireland was for years, she really wanted to see that amazing country. I decided to plan the whole trip based on the homework from the two previous fails. The trip was planned around getting the perfect tide for sunset. Once again, I wanted to stay in that area for two nights in case things went wrong the first night. It was rainy both days but we had rain free gaps on both nights. The first attempt was lovely but a bit stressful because we only had a very brief shot at low tide…but the second night went superbly. The mood was out of this world! We had birds circling the arch, the sky was dramatic and the three plus meter waves were simply astonishing. I couldn’t believe my eyes… All of that goes to say that perseverance will always payoff at some point! Sometimes it might take a while before we succeed at something…but we will eventually after trying and trying. Here’s real life proof that this theory is in fact true!
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DID I GET WET?
The village of Hamnoy deep in the Lofoten Islands is an icon. When you Google for images of Lofoten, you will often stumble on images of those cute little red cabins. Everybody that goes to Lofoten wants a picture of Hamnoy. For that reason, it’s a well photographed location. Everybody does the usual shot from the bridge. When I first visited Lofoten Islands, I also got a few shots from said bridge. For that second trip to Norway, I wanted to make sure I got something much different. So instead of going with everybody on the bridge, I went underneath it. Instead of looking down on the village, the lower angle from underneath the bridge would allow me to look up at the red cabins which would make them more prominent. They look like the stars of the show now. They look as if they were on a pedestal.
Now this came with some sort of risk factor. It’s not an easy way down under the bridge. And since I also wanted to have some water movement in the foreground, I had to stand really close to the water. Before putting myself into such situations, I will always analyze how active the ocean is and where the waves will end their trip. After a little while, I went on a lovely flat rock which was still dry so that meant I should technically be safe. I don’t want to hurt myself or the camera equipment. I settled my camera on my tripod, snapped a magnetic filter on the lens and started shooting. I was rolling the shutter as the waves were coming in, I was also focusing at different distances to make sure I had everything in focus. And then, when I was sure I had all I needed, I packed my stuff back into my bag. I also folded my tripod and turned around to leave when all of a sudden, a slightly bigger wave splashed on a rock and I got some water splashes behind my head and my shoulders. I thought it was about time I leave. The image on another hand was well worth taking a slight risk.
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GRANDIOSE
That mountain…oh my god! What a beautiful dramatic place! I was not going to leave Senja without capturing a proper image of it. I have actually been there three times. The first day was basically to do some scouting but since I was there, why not grab a shot! The sky was mostly a flat grey so I never edited that image… The next morning, I went for a sunrise but got skunked. The sky was even flatter, it was snowy and windy. For the sake of getting up early, I decided to wait for a while but things never opened. I went back to bed…
The next morning, the conditions were looking favourable with mixed clouds and a blue sky. Was it going to be the moment? I had my camera settled on the tripod and I captured a few images at the blue hour, then a few dark clouds drifted in. The sky started pooping every possible kind of precipitation on us. From rain to snow to ice pellets to hail…we got it all! It’s a good thing I am very patient and didn’t leave because a miracle happened. The sky opened, the sun came in to light up the peaks and clouds above them. The atmosphere was insane! The shot went from zero to hero in only a couple of minutes. That’s what I love most about Norway, you can literally have four seasons and one hundred different light conditions in a single hour!
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HEART OF COURAGE
Some places like Crohy Head Sea Arch made it so difficult to get a single shot I was happy with…Down Patrick Head is exactly the opposite. I went there four times over the course of 7 years and got lovely light every single time. But of all the moments I spent there, this has to be the loveliest one I have witnessed. Was it windy? Of course it was…I think it’s fair to say that this location is always windy. For some reason, when I was standing there very close to the ground, the wind was not blasting as much. The flowers were barely moving too which was a big surprise.
I had my camera settled there for a while as I was photographing the birds flying above the cliffs. It was amazing to see them playing dare devil. These guys are so agile. I am not into wildlife photography in general but I truly love to include some in my landscape images as I think they compliment the scene so well. The waves were quite impressive too. Each one crashing against the cliff wall a bit harder than the previous one. And then just out of nowhere, the sun came out through a break in the cloud coverage and lit up the whole scene. I instantly became extremely emotional. I was in serious awe, what a magical moment that was!
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A PLACE AMONG DRAGONS
Ballesvika Beach offers an unparalleled view on one of the most amazing mountain ranges in Senja, the Tungeneset Mountains. These peaks really do look like the back of a dragon. I love these repetitive rugged peaks. I visited that location in 2023 and had wonderful images including a few of auroras dancing above the jagged ridge. It was a no brainer for me that I was once again going to visit the Ballesvika Beach in 2025. On that morning, the cloud coverage was mostly high clouds and in general, I am not a fan of these because all they do is turn pink…that morning’s sunrise was going to change my opinion about high altitude clouds forever.
When I first arrived, my initial plan was to find some water pools and use them to create a nice reflection of the scene. The tide was not only too high, the waves were ferocious, and getting close to the pools was going to be dangerous. But I spotted these ledges and flat rock slabs each separated by small valleys and noticed that every time a wave would go over one, it would create a lovely waterfall type of movement. I definitely wanted to capture such awesomeness in an image. I stayed there for many long minutes, rolling my shutter every time a wave would come in until I got the shots needed to create my final image. What caught my eye the most was how cyan from the waves and magenta from the sky were gracefully complimenting each other. These two being opposed colors was for sure going to create an amazing visual impact in the image. Not bad at all for a last sunrise in Senja!
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MEANT TO BE
That image is one I visualized in October 2024 when I first visited Parc National de la Jacques Cartier. It’s in fact a Provincial Park approximately 40 minutes from downtown Quebec City. I had never been there before. And since I have a friend that lives in Quebec City, I decided to visit that park when I was visiting her. Fall colors were peaking in Montreal and Quebec City so I was sure I was going to get a lovely image in the park but no, the colors were well past their prime. Was it a waste of time? NO! I spent time exploring many areas, found that view I truly enjoyed and told myself I would come back in 2025.
Then came October 2025…I once again visited my friend. She was very happy to see me again. I went to the park three days in a row. I captured both a sunset and a sunrise but to me, the sunrise was the moment I enjoyed the most. The water level in the river was slightly lower than in 2024 so I had many more visible rocks in the river. More rocks also means more elements to play with as a foreground. Fall colours were spot on. My timing was simply perfect this time. And when the sun came up, it lit up the clouds and the mountain…it was THE moment I had in mind for a full year. And thanks to good planning, I was able to make it happen.
…IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I think it’s fair to say that 2025 was photographically speaking a very good year filled with truly memorable moments. I live for moments like those and I only wish you could all be there with me to witness them. Sadly, it can’t be done as easily as this. But I can at least share these moments in details with you so you can feel a little bit of how I felt when I was living them.
With all of that being said, I can only wish everybody a wonderful Christmas Holiday Season. Please take care of your loved ones. Some people will spend the Holidays alone…nobody deserves such a thing. Have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Don’t give actual physical presents…give your time, give your presence to them because that’s truly what matters.
As you can expect, this will be my last article of the year so I wish y’all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
