Favourite Moments of 2025 – Benjamin Williamson Photography

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for being right here. I can’t imagine I now have nearly 6500 subscribers to this text! This is regardless of my greatest efforts at being sporadic, erratic, and usually unreliable so far as getting these out in any form of common method. I suppose the upside of that is that I don’t spam you all with content material that I’m not extraordinarily obsessed with. When I’ve one thing I need to share, I share it. When I don’t, I don’t make up stuff just because I really feel like I must. I’ve gotten a ton of gratification and vitality out of your help and encouragement right here. I hope we are able to proceed to construct out the group side of this text a bit going ahead.

On that word, I’m going to be giving a presentation titled “Guide to Landscape Photography” for the Lehigh Valley Photography Club on January 15 at 7 PM ET. This discuss is on-line and open to the general public. If you’d wish to study extra and signal as much as attend, for small price, you are able to do so HERE.

Now, on to the 12 months in evaluation!

2025 was fairly momentous for me. I ended 2024 on a excessive word after feeling burnt out in the course of the summer time months, and that vitality appeared to hold via all of this 12 months.

I imagine this burst of artistic success will be attributed to many elements. The first is just time within the discipline. I co-led many workshops and traveled fairly a bit. I used to be impressed by the surroundings and likewise by the folks I used to be with. Leading workshops provides me a ton of religious and inventive vitality, and the extra I decide to them the extra I get out of them.

Another main issue was the help at residence. My spouse Kimberly is engaged on launching a brand new profession, and having her help, each whereas I make money working from home and whereas I’m on the highway, is very large. Our children are 8, 5, and 5, so they’re at a extremely enjoyable stage proper now and we’ve been having a blast with them, which makes me actually joyful, too!

Finally, I made loads of journeys to new places or one’s that I hadn’t visited usually earlier than. This confirmed the ability of exploration and novelty to generate pleasure and awe. You’ll see these newer vistas extensively within the following photographs.

While many of those images have been seen earlier than, there are a couple of new ones. I had a heck of a time narrowing them down, and erred on the facet of lots.

January discovered me co-leading our annual “Winter in Acadia” workshops with John Putnam. I like being right here with John and college students this time 12 months, within the coronary heart of winter. Getting folks to embrace being exterior in difficult situations and simply sharing the great thing about winter in one of many prettiest locations in North America is extraordinarily satisfying!

The two earlier photographs are from these journeys. The first one of many snow-covered boughs was taken whereas I used to be xc snowboarding round Jordan Pond and the second was taken throughout a workshop on the well-known birch path in Sieur De Monts. To me they each mirror a deeply felt connection to the brilliant and joyous feeling I get by being in snow.

I’m quick forwarding a bit shortly right here as a result of I’ve a ton of photographs to share from summer time and particularly fall. The picture beneath was captured in April at La Verna Preserve in Bristol, simply down the highway from our new residence in Newcastle, Maine.

Part of the enjoyment of residing in a brand new place is exploring it photographically. Stick season is the proper time to {photograph} the rocky shoreline since naked timber and even snow aren’t an excessive amount of of distraction. It’s all concerning the geology on show right here, in a location that’s simply up the coast from the same, however far more well-known, Pemaquid Point. Who wants a lighthouse when you have got rocks like this?

Moving on to a very totally different atmosphere, I spent a part of May in Olympic National Park. You can learn the complete publication put up I put collectively about this journey HERE.

The picture beneath options my favourite scene of the journey, an encounter with the maple timber coated in moss and epiphytic ferns in beautiful mild within the Quinault Rainforest.

I liked the shiny moist sheen on the foliage seen within the picture beneath, which is a bit darker and extra sombre than the picture above.

That dappled daylight within the Quinault Rainforest helped me to give attention to tiny particulars, one thing I don’t do usually. These unfurling tendrils on a fern have been highlighted properly in filtered daylight, and I moved round till the background was darkish to showcase them.

Another element I discovered in Olympic was this sample in some driftwood on one of many seashores. I spied a heart-shape among the many in any other case summary swirling traces within the trunk and excitedly composed round it.

I simply learn a post from Bryan Hansel about how reviewing photographs revamped the previous 12 months and selecting your private favorites may help you discover path along with your artistic work main into the longer term. I feel he’s spot on. Seeing these element photographs remind me that I need to maintain searching for the smaller scenes going ahead.

Moving on to summer time, the next are a few photographs I made doing one in all my favourite actions, climbing. I captured the picture beneath of the solar rising above the clouds from Mount Washington throughout our Presidential Traverse in June. The remainder of that hike, which I detailed extensively in one other newsletter post, was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Surprisingly, different photographs that I loved making on this journey and thought could be worthy of inclusion in a group similar to this one, simply haven’t held up.

Another climbing picture that captures a very totally different temper and second was made throughout a household journey to Acadia National Park in July. Thanks to the generosity of my good friend Andrew, we have been capable of keep a couple of days in Southwest Harbor and do enjoyable stuff across the island. I received away one night on my own whereas the youngsters have been watching a film and hiked everywhere in the quiet western facet of Acadia round Mansell and Bernard Mountains. It was extraordinarily misty and foggy and I didn’t even convey a digicam, a lot much less deliberate on making images. Once I began climbing, nonetheless, I used to be utterly entranced by the temper and fantastic thing about the path and forest, and made many photographs with simply my cellular phone, the picture beneath being my favourite one in all them.

Just a couple of weeks later, I used to be co-leading one other workshop in Lubec with John Putnam. Our first full night with the group featured this unbelievable pink sundown with the wildly stunning Cobscook Bay reflecting the sky in an nearly mirror-calm. I constructed the picture across the f/v Family Tradition, a crimson fishing boat moored simply offshore, in my thoughts the proper topic!

While this journey was largely about puffins, we have been extraordinarily fortunate to come across two Northern Gannets on the rocks close to the blind that I occurred to be in. The beneath picture captures what I discovered to be a really comical gaze of this unusual chicken because it turned its head.

Of course the puffins have been magnificent, as at all times.

My favourite gannet photographs revolved round interactions that will need to have been some type of communication (mating show?). As one gannet stored waving its wings and bowing down, a fish boat handed. It was mesmerizing!

And simply the night time after the earlier pink sundown, we have been handled to a very totally different, however equally compelling, sky above the harbor. I discovered one other crimson boat, this one moored proper in entrance of the picturesque island simply offshore. How fortunate have been we?!

This subsequent picture is an effective reminder that clear skies at dawn or sundown aren’t at all times a nasty factor. The clean expanse of sky helped simplify the scene round this little artist’s shack close to the doorway to the beautiful Western Head Preserve in Cutler. On the alternative shore, behind the shack, sits one other land belief plot, Eastern Knubble. Capturing the solar as a starburst shining via the timber gave the picture the ‘spark’ that it wanted!

This journey was additionally detailed in a put up that was most likely my favourite of the 12 months titled Bold Coast Reflections. I mixed photographs from my Bold Coast journeys with writing about my very own nature and struggles with anxiousness and despair in a deeply private photograph essay.

Moving on to a visit that I teased out via some particular person photographs shared on SubStack notes and social media. This was an exploration of Deer Isle and Stonington with my good friend Don Seymour. This is Don’s yard and I received to discover this space with him and keep at his residence proper within the heart of this picturesque village.

The picture beneath is the view from a couple of yards down the highway from his home, overlooking the harbor and Two Bush Island (with the flag), with Isle Au Haut looming within the background. Some late day mild hit the tops of the buildings and boats, and I targeted on this pretty home with a mansard roof as my fundamental topic right here.

I liked seeing Don within the place he loves a lot and captures so nicely, and made him the topic of two of my favourite images from right here.

The picture above was captured at an inlet on Green Island, the place we received out and explored. Don constructed this kayak himself on the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin. How cool is that?! The picture beneath options Don photographing a surprising sundown at Sand Beach, among the finest places in Maine.

I got here again that night time after dropping Don off at residence and captured the picture beneath because the final little bit of twilight departed and the celebrities got here out. It was a wild panoramic seize of Sand Beach seemed otherworldly with the sweeping clouds and milky water from the lengthy exposures required in such low mild.

In September, I received to return to Cape Cod, someplace I had been earlier than and even led workshops with Michael Blanchette nearly a decade in the past. That house of time has turned me into a distinct individual and definitely a distinct photographer. I felt excited and energized to come back again right here to co-lead a workshop with Tony Baldasaro.

Again, I owe a full publication to this journey. The first night there I went with Tony and my good friend Kevin Armstrong out throughout a treacherous breakwater in Provincetown to the Wood End Lighthouse. It was completely beautiful!

The following morning, we had the group at one in all our favourite places, Salt Pond. I captured this picture of a dinghy with an American Flag lengthy after the solar had come up and the sunshine was a bit harsh. That mild labored effective, nonetheless in backlighting the flag and grasses and serving to make this picture work. It was solely in hindsight that I noticed this picture was taken on 9/11, a haunted anniversary for the nation and one wherein our flag featured prominently. I will need to have been feeling that someplace in my psyche. That day actually had a profound impact on me.

We had an opportunity to do some night time images, and fortunately have been only a few miles down the highway from Nauset Lighthouse, one of many prettiest sights on the Cape. I liked capturing the rotating beacon beneath the celebrities!

Our final morning, we have been handled to an unbelievable dawn at Salt Pond. The sky was full of birds on the transfer, and this flock of cormorants match the scene completely, even reflecting within the calm waters of excessive tide.

After this, we stated bye to the group however had a while to wander round. We went again to Nauset and have been joyful to search out that the doorways have been open and a few volunteers have been giving excursions! Lucky for us, as a result of I made two of my favorite-ever lighthouse photographs inside.

One trying up from the underside of those distinctive crimson stairs.

And one other trying down type the highest.

We’ll be co-leading this workshop once more in September, and I’ve already talked to the parents on the Nauset Preservation Society and organized for our group to have a non-public tour contained in the lighthouse on our go to! You can study extra about this workshop and enroll HERE.

Maybe take a while to go seize a snack or beverage, however I promise I’m over midway via my favourite photographs of 2025.

The picture beneath was captured on a cloudy day at Thurston’s in Bernard on MDI throughout our Best of Maine workshop. I normally steer clear of photographing water when it’s cloudy, since it may look so uninteresting, however on this event I proved myself mistaken by complimenting the grey weathered wooden of the boat with the grey skies mirrored within the water. I’m actually joyful that I noticed this composition and it looks like an sincere exploration of a extra somber temper.

One of the standard moods that I like capturing that I’m positive you’re accustomed to are pink sunrises and sunsets. This one was made on the northern finish of Jordan Pond and required me squeezing myself as far again right into a bush as attainable with a ultra-wide 12mm lens to seize this tree. It was value it!

Going again to the cool, quiet temper, I discovered this scene on the way in which again from the Adirondacks in October. I’m shocked that I don’t have a picture from New York that matches in right here, however I vastly loved exploring that new space for a few days. To be sincere, I visited largely iconic vistas and didn’t come away with something that eclipses what I had already seen created from these places. Next time I’ll be touring with a seasoned veteran of the realm, Zone3Photo, and can absolutely come away with some higher photographs.

Anyways, that is from a small pond in Vermont.

The similar day, I dashed all the way in which from Vermont to Maine to seize what I assumed could be a pleasant sundown. I climbed Tumbledown Mountain and received to the highest simply in time to witness this blaze of fall coloration with a powerful sky!

During our Fall in New Hampshire workshop, we arrange at a well-liked lake to {photograph} a little bit white church via the mist. Instead of the church, I discovered these colourful maples darting out and in of evergreens to be much more fascinating with the fog.

My favourite large angle scene from the autumn was this one on the Ammonoosuc River in New Hampshire. It wasn’t exhausting to make. I used to be standing on a bridge, photographing the solar via the timber, nevertheless it was oh-so-satisfying.

Even although I’m sharing loads of photographs right here, I’m leaving a ton on the desk. If you haven’t seen them already, take a look at my two publication posts from this fall titled A Taste of Fall and Awesome Autumn.

Here’s one from The Tarn in Acadia.

Back at residence, on a break between workshops, I loved a misty dawn proper down the highway the place the Sheepscot River passes over a reversing falls. This outdated boathouse and the scene round it look nice in every kind of climate, however actually shone with the fog and golden mild on the golden fall foliage.

Below, I’m going to share my favourite photographs from my big journey to the southwest. You must learn my posts Unlocking a Love for the Desert and Road to Zion should you haven’t already. These are only a few highlights.

Totally bananas, proper?

The greatest takeaways from this journey have been that I found a love for the desert that wasn’t there earlier than. I used to be full of awe and the sense that I used to be doing precisely what I ought to be doing, exploring the wonders of nature and the world with my digicam and like-minded companions.

With that willpower, I’ve simply booked a visit to discover Yosemite in late February and early March! This would be the first of hopefully many journeys world wide to satiate my wanderlust that was actually ignited this November within the desert.

But within the meantime, I’ll stay grounded at residence, with my household, and within the locations I do know and love deeply near me. The picture beneath was captured simply throughout the river from our home, taking a look at our neighbor’s stunning colonial residence within the heavy moist snow we acquired on Christmas Eve.

That snow lingered into Christmas and I captured one other scene from the neighborhood with our 8-year-old daughter Charlotte in tow, this tenderly embellished spruce tree (because of our neighbor Catherine) throughout a heavy snow squall with the solar setting behind some majestic pines.

And that wraps it up! Whew! Thanks for following alongside all year long and thru this very lengthy put up. I do know we’re supposed to maintain it round 10-15 photographs, however this 12 months was simply too large for me to carry again.

I’m main and co-leading many photography workshops in 2026. I’ll even be showing once more at artwork exhibits in Maine and giving talks in varied places. I’ll try to replace these as they turn into out there HERE.

I’m additionally excited to announce that I’m now an official affiliate of B&H Photo, the place I purchase most of my images tools, in addition to ThinkTank, which carries my favourite digicam baggage. Any time you store via B&H or ThinkTank, use can use the hyperlinks right here and I’ll get a particular referral bonus. It’s no further value to you and it helps me out. Thank you!