Its that time of year again. Had a rummage through the 2025 folder and chose this
Took a class over the summer and discussing inspiration “Another Place” by Antony Gormley came up.
Never ceases to amaze what total strangers will do when you ask nicely.
Your turn. Show your favorite / best of '25 and maybe a few words to lend some context.
BTW, doesn’t have to be a photo. Anything made with FOSS qualifies
I bought a camera this year with the idea of photographing local running competitions, meetings, and parkruns. This is the very first photo I took with that camera.
This is probably not the best photo I have made, but it is one of my favorites.
Dhalias being readied for judging. Flowers that are too old, mishapen blooms, limbs that bore undesireable variations (thanks to an octoploid genome), and limbs with no blooms are cut off and discarded in a large pile. Judging takes place shortly after each “trim”. That pile is carted away to a non-public compost pile, to prevent people absconding with cuttings which they could propogate. Tubers from striking plants were already selling for $100+/ ea. The plant with the highest point total could sell tubers at higher prices (per the judge).
I’m not too sure… I’ve had an incredibly lucky and productive year.
I’ve been lucky enough to be in so many different regions and get out to take photos fairly regularly.
But I think the one that got me the most excited happened just a while back.
I’d gone out to hopefully catch the surrounding mountains lit up by the moon, and before I knew it a thick blanket of low lying fog drifted down the valley. Being that there are railways on both sides of the river or was only a matter of time before I could get a train in the photo… So I managed to capture this train powering slowly down the track through the thick fog.
One of my favorite photos from this year was Electric Dance Duo. I liked how they worked together and I think that I captured some of that electricity in this photo.
I will pick this one because it was from my most recent trip to Vietnam. I really wanted to take the classic picture of a merchant pushing her bike with flowers on the back towards the camera. Although I failed this task I took this one instead. Bike and merchant are there. She sells fruits instead of flowers but it’s just as colorful I think.
Didn’t do much real camera photography this year but captured a lot that I love on my trusty smartphones!
And we’re off…
Like the subtext there
New Forest ponies in Milkham inclosure. I have fond memories of this track; 20+ years ago my Mrs and I were riding the horses along here at a flat out gallop, shoulder to shoulder, horses racing each other and not entirely under control ;-). Just past the ponies there’s a hidden dip, which on that day hid a couple of Forest rangers counting trees or something. We did miss them, just, though I’m not sure how.
Every year again this annoying question…
For some reason, I like these two shots, even though one of it only shows our rental car:
I only really picked up photography this year. There were a couple of photos that I liked, all in very different styles. This is one of them.
(the pattern in the bokeh is from a chainlink-fence that I shot through, which I think turned out quite nicely)
Cranes are so goofy
Ah here now, I said choose one…
I’ll have to put you on the naughty step, or that broken bit of pavement
It’s a white stork AFAICT 
Failure of translation… 
I chose one. But I don’t tell you which one. 
Not my best photo from 2025, but the one with the best story: We were on vacation in a little spanish town. Three men were sitting in front of the church, I asked them to take photos from them, they agreed, I took photos. Later, back in Germany, I thought, it would be nice to send prints to this men. But how, not knowing their names or phonenumbers or addresses? I looked up the church, searching for an office of them, but there was none. Ok, the second building, close to the church, was the town hall. So I wrote a letter to the town hall (with three letters plus photos for the men enclosed), if they perhaps know these men and could give them the photos (deepl.com helped me to write in Spanish). To my great surprise I later got an email from one of the three men (in Spanish, again deepl). They were sitting at the church, as usual, as suddenly the Major (!) of that town came to them and gave them my photos. What a joy for them and their families!
Maybe in a while I will travel there again and find out, if these three were more impressed by my photos or the fact, that the Major came to them
