Photographers’ Favorites 2025

Every day, The Michigan Daily’s photographers are out and about, capturing the happenings on campus and within the higher Ann Arbor space. From midnight scorching canine stands to sold-out sporting occasions, we’ve been there with a digital camera in hand.

We unfold our workers out throughout the city to make sure protection of each occasion The Michigan Daily requires, but even when we gave all 28 photographers the identical task, every particular person would come again with a special photograph. Informed by our personal private biases, relationships and technical experience, we work to indicate our model of the story.

Join our workers on a nostalgic stroll again by means of the previous yr, reminiscing on every of our favourite images we’ve taken for The Daily. For a extra immersive viewing expertise, please discover this gallery and luxuriate in extra video interviews that includes seven of our staffers sharing their love for pictures.

Georgia McKay

Being on The Daily’s photostaff has given me numerous issues: lifelong mates, alternatives past my wildest desires and a way of belonging on campus. One of the issues I’m most grateful for is the best way it modified how I see the University of Michigan. My assignments have despatched me to each nook of Ann Arbor, to locations and occasions I would by no means have stumbled upon alone. They’ve pushed me to expertise the University extra absolutely, noticing particulars and tales I might have in any other case rushed previous. This photograph represents a wholly new perspective I gained due to The Daily. I took it whereas flying in a helicopter over campus, one thing I nonetheless can’t fairly consider I obtained to do. From the sky, the campus I’ve spent the previous three years documenting grew to become new and unfamiliar. The pathways I’ve sprinted throughout, satisfied I’d by no means make it to class on time, all of a sudden regarded tiny. Seeing all of it from that top jogged my memory simply how rather more there all the time is to find, and the way fortunate I’m to get to indicate individuals their world from a special approach by means of my images. It’s a perspective I’ll carry with me lengthy after I go away campus. 

Holly Burkhart

The second I pressed the shutter, I knew that this body captured extra than simply the motion in entrance of me. When I drove all the way down to Findlay, Ohio, to {photograph} a boxing match this fall for a multimedia piece for The Michigan Daily, I anticipated to see a little bit of sweat, flying gloves and pounding fists. However, what I didn’t count on was to witness a deeper story — not simply between two boxing opponents, however of a crew that was striving for recognition. When I centered my digital camera, I froze not the second of a swing, however as a substitute a second of identification, neighborhood and willpower. Looking on the photograph now, I bear in mind the stress of the judges, the echo of cheers and the nervous power behind each punch. The fighters within the ring weren’t simply battling one another; they have been preventing for an opportunity to be acknowledged. Later, one of many boxers informed me how a lot it meant to have somebody present up with a digital camera. For a second, the lens grew to become greater than a instrument, it grew to become a mirror for my topic. The boxing crew confirmed me how the ability of pictures isn’t simply capturing what’s in entrance of you, however giving visibility to individuals chasing their desires. This picture stays my favourite of the yr as a result of it jogs my memory why I decide up my digital camera within the first place. In this photograph lies a narrative of the worth of being seen — a present I hope to share with many. 

Grace Lahti

One of my favourite issues about The Daily is the chance it provides us to seize all the eccentricities of a school campus, and the eccentricities of the town of Ann Arbor. At 1 a.m., I got down to {photograph} EJ’s Gourmet Street Cuisine pop-up that runs from midnight to 2 a.m. exterior of Eightball Saloon in downtown Ann Arbor. As the primary snowflakes of winter began to fall round me, I scurried over to watch a second that felt like one thing straight out of a novel. Forget “The Midnight Library”, this was The Midnight Hot Dog Stand! I shuffled across the hungry partiers and aimed my digital camera with an extremely low shutter velocity to attempt to seize a glimpse of the darkish evening. Though this isn’t probably the most beautiful photograph I’ve taken in my time at The Daily, it’s a illustration of the worth scholar journalism has delivered to my previous three-and-a-half years. I’ve been granted a slew of unimaginable alternatives by means of The Daily from photographing Lollapalooza to the Democratic National Convention, however I wouldn’t commerce these odd little assignments for something.  

Emily Alberts

My favourite Daily street journey was, paradoxically, again residence to Indianapolis for the 2025 Big Ten Basketball Tournament. I grew up in a suburb simply exterior the town, and as a substitute of getting a lodge, the boys’s basketball beat determined to remain at my home. At first, I used to be nervous about internet hosting 4 boys I barely knew in my childhood residence. We had packed for a brief journey — as Michigan wasn’t anticipated to go very far within the event — however the crew continued profitable, together with one sport on a buzzer-beater. The beat and I ended up spending three basketball-filled days collectively (fittingly, in Indiana), rising nearer with each sport. After a sluggish championship sport, the Wolverines defeated Wisconsin 59-53. This photograph is my favourite as a result of the framing captures the emotion of Michigan’s underdog championship run. I like how Vlad Goldin’s celebration displays within the championship trophy, and the way, within the background, you’ll be able to see his hand meet Nimari Burnett’s. This photograph not solely showcases lots of the expertise I’ve discovered through the years at The Daily, but in addition is consultant of the broader expertise I had masking the event. I had a lot enjoyable hanging out with the beat that weekend, and now I’m proud to name them a few of my closest mates. It’s an expertise I’ll all the time bear in mind. 

Alyssa Mulligan

I typically discover myself approaching completely different sports activities as a check in pictures. A check to prepare and develop a fantastic unfold, however present every sport in its most unusual and uncooked type. Approaching new sports activities will be arduous. Gymnastics is one which has all the time challenged my inventive expression in pictures. My exploration with completely different types has developed and altered throughout the final two years of my time at The Daily. I’ve discovered methods to adapt rapidly to fast-paced environments, work intently with topics and follow other ways to seize a scene. What is so stunning about athletic pictures is how one can finally select methods to painting an individual in that very second, irrespective of the depth of the talent they’re performing. I selected this photograph of iconic Olympian Fred Richard throughout the NCAA semi-finals. The pommel horse, particularly, is a troublesome equipment to seize. Not due to its awkward type and nature, however just because the motion on the horse occurs so quick, in lower than 30 seconds of routine. The routines typically look very comparable from athlete to athlete. In a quick second, I used to be capable of hone in on my settings, actually give attention to the second and seize the easy fantastic thing about the pommel horse. Richard, performing an almost-perfect-scoring routine, was the proper mannequin to indicate this portion of gymnastics that usually goes unnoticed. I discovered that in put up manufacturing, the mixture of his prolonged physique and critical expression makes the picture memorable and hanging.

Josh Sinha

This image rocks. Just have a look at it. It’s all the time an thrilling problem as a photographer to translate the ephemeral actions of dance right into a single body. I used to be happy that this photograph of Salto Dance Company’s efficiency at Dance Mix got here out trying much less like a photograph and extra like a cutout. It’s not the toughest factor to make a fantastic second look good, however it’s all the time rewarding to do it nicely. 

Meleck Eldahshoury

Here, Justin Choi sleeps beneath a crag at The Red River Gorge in Kentucky. This {photograph} represents a time frame I spent attending to know climbers from the Michigan Climbing Club on a fast, although intimate, tenting journey within the yard of a pizza joint — Miguel’s Pizza. After lead climbing many routes for much less skilled climbers, Choi lastly rested his head earlier than getting up once more to arrange more difficult routes for himself and his good good friend Zach Fish. I’m drawn to pictures as a result of it renews in me an pleasure in direction of life, and this journey grew to become a type of moments. I obtained to climb a crag and take footage whereas climbing up the partitions and get up in a tent searching for a body very first thing on a weary morning. There are many nuances to climbing, and by inserting my digital camera in between myself and the topic, I used to be capable of expertise a few of it. 

Soyeon Kim

What excites me most about being a photographer for The Daily is capturing sports activities. Although I didn’t develop up watching sports activities, I rapidly developed an curiosity in capturing the eagerness of the gamers and the stress on the sector as followers cheer for his or her crew. I bear in mind strolling onto the sector on the Big House for the primary time, feeling each excited and nervous, not sure of what to anticipate. As the quarters glided by and I familiarized myself with the tempo of the sport, I spotted how a lot I loved being in the course of all of it. It was a surreal expertise seeing gamers run straight towards you for the top zone and with the ability to witness each second from so shut on the sector. This photograph was taken at my first soccer sport, when working again Justice Haynes celebrated after scoring a landing in opposition to Central Michigan University. I selected this picture as a result of it displays the shared power between the gamers and the gang as Haynes bumped into the top zone with the ball in hand. It represents what I worth most in pictures: capturing moments that really feel alive lengthy after the sport is over.

Bridgette Bol

I took this image on a sweltering June morning in the course of nowhere Michigan. My dad was tinkering with issues on his bike as I sat with my legs hanging out the trunk of our minivan tweaking my settings. I feel I knew the second I panned over the parking zone filled with racers, pumping up bike tires and oiling chains, that I had captured one thing particular within the first body of the day. This scene makes me smile each time I have a look at it. There’s one thing so uncooked and actual within the mundanity of all of it, a mom braiding her daughter’s hair earlier than her first bike race whereas I sat beside my dad and he watched me work for the primary time. The complete Dirty Donut photograph essay is one thing I’m so happy with, however there’s one thing about this picture specifically that transports me proper again to that second, trying over my shoulder to search out my dad’s proud smile. 

Arushi Sanghi

March Madness on the University of Notre Dame was really mad in each sense. Over 4 days, we discovered ourselves driving forwards and backwards between Ann Arbor and South Bend, Indiana, and someplace alongside these four-hour stretches, I fell even deeper into the world of ladies’s basketball: the tales, the power, the individuals. This photograph captures one in all my favourite storylines on the Michigan girls’s basketball crew. It reveals level guard Syla Swords sharing a lighthearted pregame second with Natalie Achonwa, assistant coach for participant improvement. They have been merely warming up and having fun with the sport, however the setting made it much more significant. We have been at Notre Dame, Achonwa’s former residence court docket, the place the place her jersey now hangs within the rafters. And simply months earlier, Swords and Achonwa had been teammates on the Canadian girls’s nationwide crew throughout the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Seeing that connection — between former teammates, a coach returning to her residence court docket and a participant she now mentors — was a superb reminder of what I worth about pictures; it’s not solely about documenting the sport itself, but in addition about capturing actual moments that present the relationships and context behind it.

Ananya Kedia

One of the primary books my mom and I learn collectively was “I Am Malala.” We related over its honesty and the way it talked about rising up, navigating expectations and holding onto your voice even when the world tries to quiet it. Sharing that ebook sparked a few of our first actual conversations about turning into unbiased, selecting our personal paths and what it means to talk up for your self. These conversations formed how I noticed the world and my place in it. Never did I think about that years later I’d be photographing the very girl whose story sparked these moments. I selected this {photograph} as a result of it captures the quiet energy she all the time speaks about, the ability of permitting your self to dream with out restriction. Something about her expression — relaxed, amused, snug in her personal presence — felt like the identical spirit I first met on the web page. As a photographer, you look forward to that cut up second the place an individual’s guard drops and their actual power comes by means of, and on this second, I felt like I’d captured precisely that: somebody who has lived a life formed by resilience, but sits right here with a sort of easy ease. It felt like witnessing a narrative I’d as soon as solely learn come alive proper in entrance of my lens.

Caleb Rosenblum

This image is from the Michigan males’s basketball crew’s first sport of the 2025-2026 season in opposition to Oakland University. Five-star freshman Trey McKenney, in his first sport for the Wolverines, made a huge effect off the bench, scoring 21 factors. After being chosen to do the in-arena post-game interview, the entire crew mobbed and cheered him on. Seeing the real pleasure his teammates had for his success was so cool to see, and you may clearly see on McKenney’s face how a lot this assist and power meant to him. On the floor, sports activities pictures is just about capturing the “what” of a given sporting occasion, however getting an opportunity to convey the emotion that’s ever current in school sports activities is what’s most impactful and essential to me. 

Bela Fischer

This image is from the primary Michigan soccer sport of the 2025 season in opposition to the University of New Mexico, which additionally occurred to be my final residence opener as a scholar on the University of Michigan. The photograph represents greater than a celebratory second, but in addition the start of the top of my time as a photographer for The Daily. I’m honored that, through the years I’ve spent at The Daily, I’ve had the chance to {photograph} Big Ten Conference sports activities, so many cool on-campus occasions like a stay recording of the Kara Swisher podcast with Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. secretary of transportation, and even Donald Trump on the People’s Convention in Detroit. I wished to decide on a photograph that represents the joy of being a photographer. We get to be part of so many loopy moments and see issues we’d by no means expertise in any other case. Being on the sector of the Big House with a digital camera for my final residence opener is one thing I’ll always remember. More than something, it jogs my memory of why I fell in love with pictures within the first place and why moments like this one have made my time at The Michigan Daily so particular.

Nasen

This photograph comes from my first task for The Michigan Daily, taken throughout Jacob Collier’s presentation in Ann Arbor. What struck me on this second was how fully the viewers related with him. Even in a full theater, the ambiance felt intimate, as if everybody was drawn into the efficiency and presentation that Collier delivered to the stage. Covering this occasion jogged my memory that pictures will not be solely about documenting what occurs on stage; it’s also about capturing the sensation that strikes by means of a room. Being capable of protect that sense of connection in a single body is what makes this work significant to me.

Madalyn Braun

My favourite photograph I’ve taken this yr is from the University of Michigan versus University of Cincinnati basketball sport, exhibiting ahead Yaxel Lendeborg moments earlier than a slam dunk. This was taken throughout my first time ever masking a basketball sport for The Daily. I used to be extraordinarily nervous and excited to cowl the sport, and I wished to ensure I didn’t mess something up. When I sat down on the court docket, taking images whereas the gang cheered behind me, I felt a rush of contagious power. Snap! I obtained the shot. I regarded down at my digital camera viewfinder and noticed I had captured an ideal second within the sport. This empowered me; I knew I might deal with the duty of masking the sport. Among the strain, pleasure and chaos, I used to be capable of freeze a snapshot in time that may without end be the turning level of once I realized how a lot I like sports activities and that I wish to pursue this as a profession sooner or later.  

Ava Farah

I took this image of broad receiver Donaven McCulley on the University of Michigan versus University of Maryland soccer sport in College Park, Maryland — the primary soccer sport I lined for The Michigan Daily. McCulley spreads his arms in celebration of his landing, a broad grin on his face as he poses in entrance of the Maryland scholar part. Upon modifying, I cropped the photograph so his wingspan crammed the body; this, alongside the marginally decrease viewpoint, presents McCulley as an imposing, highly effective determine. With this I hope to inform the story of the Maryland sport as a complete, and Michigan’s thrilling victory. To me, footage like this are what sports activities pictures is all about. Telling the story of the sport by exhibiting the feelings of the gamers. Sports are a distinctly human occupation that brings individuals collectively. Through my work for The Daily, I intention to create images that assist viewers really feel related to the athletes they cheer for.

Varun Tandon

This photograph was taken at a conventional Chinese opera occasion, on my second-ever outing for The Daily. I used to be driving a excessive going into it after my very first task was named photograph of the week. While I sadly couldn’t hit that mark twice in a row, I feel this photograph is one in all my most memorable, capturing simply the correct amount of stress from the drama it represents. What makes this my favourite isn’t the composition although. Whenever I’m requested what it’s prefer to be a photojournalist, this occasion, and this image, is what I consider. It completely encompasses the chance to go the place others don’t, to share with the world one thing they by no means would have seen in any other case. For myself, I can say with complete certainty I might not have half the campus experiences I do with out The Daily. But by means of the lens of a digital camera, the tales taking place throughout us develop into lots clearer.

Zayd Ahmad

I like this photograph for a wide range of causes. From an emotional perspective, as a Palestinian I admire the popularity the pro-Palestine trigger has obtained, and this signal is merely one instance. Furthermore, it serves as a direct critique of a gaggle that’s supposed to guard campus — the Division of Public Safety and Security. With sure occasions involving protesters having occurred within the final couple of years, DPSS has come beneath fireplace, with criticism coming within the type of this signal. Photographically, the spherical, hearty bokeh serves as an important contrasting background for the signal, in addition to the hand and keffiyeh holding it up. The manner the photograph isolates the hanging textual content and message of the signal will not be one thing you could seize at a protest fairly often, particularly with one thing so private, which is why I like this photograph.

Harper King

While this photograph isn’t probably the most technical or advanced shot that I’ve taken for The Michigan Daily this yr, it’s undoubtedly my favourite. I like how the world appears to separate itself in half, with the University of Michigan’s facet glowing blue and The Ohio State University’s facet being washed over with a crimson tone. The power of the top of the set, the lighting, the symmetry, all of it comes collectively to make the scene one thing past easy sports activities pictures. What actually makes this photograph particular, although, is what it represents for me as a freshman working at The Daily. Getting to work across the Crisler Center after which look again at my images afterward provides me a surreal second of “I actually get to do this.” This shot jogs my memory of how fortunate I’m to already be masking occasions like this, and what number of extra locations, video games and occasions I’ll get to cowl in my future at The Daily. It jogs my memory that this previous semester has simply been the beginning of the whole lot, and that straightforward illustration makes it my favourite.

Isai Hernandez-Flores

Being a part of The Michigan Daily has been probably the greatest experiences I’ve had on the University of Michigan. It’s given me neighborhood, objective and the sense that the work I do could make an actual influence. The individuals I’ve met by means of The Daily are mates I wouldn’t commerce for something, and this photograph embodies precisely why. I took it whereas masking a gaggle of scholars who run a pop-up restaurant out of 1 group member’s residence — an unlikely house reworked into one thing significant and communal. The second felt creative, like a culinary model of “The Creation of Adam,” “The Creation of Steak.” Hands reaching, plates passing, a small kitchen transferring with intention and care. While it might not be probably the most technically spectacular photograph I’ve ever taken, it’s my favourite due to the story behind it. It captures what I like most about journalism and pictures: individuals coming collectively, constructing one thing greater than themselves and letting me witness it. In that small kitchen, surrounded by their laughter and dedication, I used to be reminded of why I do that work and why neighborhood issues a lot.

Jonah Feldman

I took this image of midfielder Raymundo Mendez on the Michigan vs. Detroit Mercy males’s soccer sport. I chosen this photograph as my all-time favourite of the semester due to the seen uncooked emotion of the 2 topics of the picture. In a split-second second that was captured, the trajectory of the sport switched as Mendez blocked the ball and altered its course to ultimately rating a purpose.

Lune Mathis

Joining The Michigan Daily as a workers photographer has been the spotlight of my semester. I particularly liked once I obtained to shoot the swim meet of the University of Michigan versus Oakland University and the University of Pittsburgh. Having been a swimmer for greater than 15 years, I used to be so excited to {photograph} my ardour. It was three hours of watching younger and galvanizing athletes give the whole lot they’d. Looking again on the image, I bear in mind the coach’s encouragement, the shout of the teammates and the Michigan preventing music earlier than a swimmer dove. What I like on this image is how I used to be capable of freeze an on the spot of one thing taking place that quick — the close-up with the swimmer coming towards me, the splash of water, the symmetry of the arms. It nearly feels just like the swimmer goes to come back out of the image. Photography gave me a solution to reconnect with part of myself I assumed I had left behind once I stopped competing. Being behind the digital camera didn’t make me miss swimming — it made me admire it in a brand new manner. Instead of focusing alone race, I obtained to seize the hassle, emotion and dedication of others. It jogged my memory of why I fell in love with the game within the first place.

Randall Xiao

This {photograph} was taken throughout my first sports activities task for The Michigan Daily: The Michigan baseball crew internet hosting the University of South California on March 14 —the day earlier than my twenty first birthday. It stays a private favourite as a result of it was the primary time I felt the deeper, nearly non secular dimension of sports activities pictures. What strikes me about this body is the house it leaves for interpretation by the viewer. For me, it reveals how sports activities and surroundings coexist, and the way their interplay creates an aesthetic that goes past the motion. 

Akul Gunukula

I grew up watching loads of sports activities, none greater than soccer. From the second I joined The Daily, I wished to take footage at a Michigan soccer sport. I knew it could be an expertise like no different, being on the sector, seeing and listening to what most solely see on TV. This yr, The Michigan Daily gave me the chance to seize the small and large moments in each Michigan sport, however none have been cooler than the Michigan vs Purdue soccer sport this yr. I captured this body of working again Jordan Marshall working free to attain the primary factors of the sport. It was the primary of many moments that evening the place Marshall couldn’t be stopped. You might see the joy in everybody watching. It’s my favourite photograph from 2025 as a result of I obtained to seize a Michigan Wolverine scoring a landing in a nighttime soccer sport. I might by no means have imagined once I first picked up a digital camera that I might take footage of Michigan soccer beneath the Big House lights. It’s one of many moments I’ll always remember.

Senior Multimedia Editor Grace Lahti will be reached at glahti@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily Photostaff will be reached at photograph@michigandaily.com.

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