Top Ten Photos of 2025

#1

“View from Lanai”
January 3, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

I’m always looking for a different perspective on the same subjects. So instead of photographing the beach straight on, I looked out the smaller window to the North. I like the geometry of the building set against the natural landscape. The lines of the window frames point your eyes towards the horizon.

Also, the way the beach is mirrored in the glass gives a bit of symmetry to the photo overall. Because of the reflection, the horizon goes through the entire image, but it’s broken up by the building, so it’s not perfect. The colors also feel like Southwest Florida to me.

#2

“Beach Dumpster”
January 9, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

I was walking down the sidewalk when I noticed the contrast of this dumpster full of renovation trash set against the beautiful beach scene. I skipped taking this photo a couple different days because I wondered if it was too cliche, but finally I went over to take a closer look and thought it made an interesting photo.

I don’t mean for this to be any kind of social commentary. I don’t know if this waste was from someone fixing up their place after hurricane damage or making cosmetic renovations to their beachfront home. It was just an interesting image.

#3

“A Walk to the Beach”
January 4, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

I was holding the camera waist-high to take this from the height of my 5 y/o. I couldn’t see through the LCD screen too well in the bright sun as we were walking, so in the moment I couldn’t tell if I was getting exactly what I wanted.

By holding the camera right at the back of the board, there’s a great sense of perspective here, like you’re following right behind him. I like an image where you feel like your physically standing right next to the subject.

#4

“Sunset through Glass Table”
January 8, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

The sun was setting as I walked into the condo. I wanted to get a photo because of the great color & light, but I needed to find a different perspective on a subject photography by thousands of people every day. I noticed the glass table with a drinking glass and a lamp with a lucite base. I held my camera at table height so the drinking glass would take up a lot of the frame.

One thing I really like about this that you might not immediately notice is that you can see a continuation of the water all the way to the edge of the shore through the table at the bottom.

#5

“Putt Putt and Crocs”
January 7, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

The two main things I like about this photo are the minimal color palette and how the line of the bricks curves from the top left to the bottom right. It’s a minimalist photo, but it has some complexity to it.

#6

“Dune Through Trees”
January 9, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

I saw these people standing on the dune and so I looked for an object nearby to give a sense of scale. A lot of times I like to have something close to the camera and further away to have a more layered image with depth.

#7

“Beach Beverage”
January 9, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

For this photo I was drinking a bourbon & Coke at the beach and as I raised the glass, I wanted to capture a first-person perspective. I like the out-of-focus sparkles from the ice and how the blue straw is barely visible. The way the glass distorts the horizon also adds some interest to me.

#8

“Barefoot Beach”
January 3, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

I liked the morning shadows from above and waited for some walkers to come through to add some points of interest. I also like how the horizon is not visible in this image. It makes it kind of graphic in a way.

#9

“Hurricane Dunes”
January 9, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

These dunes were not created by a hurricane, but were the result of one. The dunes used to be much smaller and covered in vegetation, but they were completely wiped out. As a part of the clean-up efforts, bulldozers and excavators have been building up these larger dunes. A lot of what I wanted to show here was documenting the changes I’ve seen vs previous visits.

#10

“Beach Dozer”
January 9, 2025
Camera: Fujifilm X-T20
Lens: XF 23mm f/2

One of the first days I was there, I was walking back to the beach when a very large excavator was driving past a bunch of beach chairs and umbrellas. And that WOULD HAVE been a great image, but my camera was already at the beach without me and I couldn’t get there in time!

So I kept an eye out for another chance to photograph the machines working at the beach and this was the only one I had. It’s minimal. It’s ok. I don’t imagine it will stay here too long! Ha!

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About this project

I’m tracking my Top Ten Photos of 2025 throughout the year!

Last year I thought it would be funny to post my Top Ten Photos of the year starting on the very first day. My wife, Courtney, suggested I run with it and track my Top Ten Photos throughout the year.

In addition to posting them on social media, I’ll have this as a home for the photos so you can see where the current top 10 stands, along with other images that were in the top 10, but have fallen off.

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Past Top Ten Photos of 2025

As I take new photos I like better, I’ll drop the others below the line. Sometimes I bring them back into the Top Ten.

Let me know your favorites in the comments and I might take that in consideration when choosing the current iteration of the Top Ten!