Last year, I followed a friend’s lead and did a recap of my year as a photographer. Putting in some work to look back through a year’s worth of photography is just what I needed to round out 2025. Honestly, this year has been incredibly difficult with a lot of craziness in my personal life and a lot of work in my role at the National Aquarium. This was also the year that I invested heavily in improving my mental health. I started working with an incredible therapist who helped me realize how much ADHD had been dictating my life. With her help, I’m better able to take advantage of the parts of my brain that are “super powers,” while better managing the other side of that coin that usually has me getting in my own way.

2025 was a big step in managing my bandwidth. I realized in early Summer that I was overloading myself with extra work and self-imposed expectations from other sources. I took a step back with my personal business and turned down A LOT of work in favor of investing time in giving myself space to breathe. I’m thankful for the folks that continued to reach out with gigs, and hope that we’ll find ways of working together soon. I’m thankful for the friends who invited me out for random photoshoots or a happy hour or just took time to check in to make sure I wasn’t working myself to death. I’m sad that I felt the need to step away from Creative Mornings after 3 years of volunteering, but am happy to be able to contribute with the occasional portrait session. Y’all are the group who most directly showed me how charming Baltimore can be - I’m grateful for you and I miss you.

I’m most grateful for my wife, who has been the most sturdy and supportive presence in my life. We’ve been together 10 years (married 6), but I’m still blown away every single day at how great she is at bringing out the best parts of myself. Neither one of us is great at staying up late, but we are great at waking up early to go out on a shoot or some other random adventure. Thanks, babe, for taking in so many sunrises with me, and for being a steadfast muse for all this time. I love you.

I’ve collected some of my favorite shots from 2025 and sorted them into the three categories I focus on the most (my Aquarium work isn’t included here). I hope you enjoy this review as much as I do.

In closing, I’m relieved that 2025 is coming to an end, but grateful for every second of it. From this point in December, I can look back recognize that I lived this year as a whole-ass human. I have a much better emotional vocabulary to describe the good and the bad. I’ve got some incredible images to help tell the story of this year, some scars to keep me honest, and a lot of optimism to shine light into the parts that remain unresolved moving into 2026.

Thanks, 2025. You’ve taught me a lot. And yes, concerned reader, I am okay - I’m just very tired.