Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Once again I’m inviting you, my faithful blog readers, to help me choose my best photographs from the past year. I’ve posted 52 of my favorite images from 2025 below, in chronological order. After you look through these, please use the form at the bottom of this post to list your ten favorites. The voting deadline is midnight Pacific Time, Monday, December 29th. Once the votes are in I’ll post the top ten or twelve on this blog.

As always, I reserve the right to override the votes if one of my favorites gets panned. But I’ve rarely had to exercise this power because my readers have excellent taste. 🙂

Thanks for your input — I appreciate your help!

I included more nominees than usual this year because it was so hard to pare it down! Claudia and I made overseas trips to Antarctica, Hokkaido (Japan), and Greenland, and also traveled domestically to Tennessee, North Carolina, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon. So it was a busy year, and the style of photography required in Antarctica and Greenland required capturing many frames to get one good one. I made over 120,000 photographs this year! I’ve had a big backlog of images to go through and process, so many of the photographs here haven’t been posted before – especially ones from our road trip to Utah and Colorado in October. But it was all lots of fun, and generated many great memories!

I hope 2025 brought you great memories as well, and Claudia and I wish you lots of joy and happiness for the holidays and new year!

— Michael Frye

1. Chinstrap penguin calling, Antarctica

2. Clouds and mountains in an icy bay, Antarctica

3. Iceberg at sunset, Antarctica

4. Gentoo penguins and small icebergs, Antarctica

5. Ice mushroom, Antarctica

6. Fog, ice, and mountains, Antarctica

7. Mountains, glaciers, and chinstrap penguins, Antarctica

8. River and snow-covered trees, Hokkaido, Japan

9. Japanese rowan tree in a thermal area, Hokkaido, Japan

10. Snow, trees, and sunbeams, Hokkaido, Japan

11. Sun, tree, snow, and cloud iridescence, Hokkaido, Japan

12. Dancing red-crowned cranes, Hokkaido, Japan

13. Aquaduct selfie, Kyoto, Japan

14. Winter sunrise from Tunnel View, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

15. Spring tapestry, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC, USA

16. Dogwood in fog, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC, USA

17. Brown pelicans at sunset, Northern California coast, USA

18. Sunlight, fog, and redwoods, Northern California, USA

19. Star trails above a lodgepole pine, Yosemite NP, California

20. Cow parsnips and Sierra lilies, Yosemite NP, California

21. Lake, clouds, and granite domes at sunrise, Yosemite NP, California

22. Iceberg in fog, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

23. Ice arch and mountains, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

24. Pond, peaks, fiord, and glacier at sunrise, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

25. Aurora, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

26. Aspens and Maples, Wasatch Mountains, Utah

27. Backlit aspens, Utah

28. Aspens reflected in a marsh, Utah

29. Aspens reflected in a creek, Utah

30. Aspen hillside, Utah

31. Snow squall over mountains and aspen groves, Colorado

32. Leaves, ice, and reflections of aspen trunks, Colorado

33. Late-day light on an aspen grove, Colorado

34. Layered aspens, Colorado

35. Autumn reflections, Colorado

36. Aspens and spruces in fog, Colorado

37. Clouds, mist, and aspens, Colorado

38. Aspens and peaks and sunset, Colorado

39. Clouds, sunbeams, and aspens in autumn, Colorado

40. Boulder on a canyon wall, Utah

41. Mud patterns with reflected light, Utah

42. Cottonwood tree reflected in a creek, Utah

43. Ripples in a creek, Utah

44. Dappled light at a canyon overlook, Utah

45. Autumn color in a desert wash, Utah

46. Sea stacks in morning light, Oregon Coast

47. Shaft of light through a natural bridge, Oregon Coast

48. Waves, fog, and sunlight along the Oregon Coast

49. Landing gear down – tundra swans landing in fog, Sacramento Valley, California

50. Mist, sunbeams, and a fog layer, Sierra Nevada foothills, California

51. Willow leaves, Yosemite NP, California

52. Ice with bubbles and reflections, Yosemite NP, California

Please use the form below to cast your votes. Although I always appreciate getting emails and comments, your vote will only be counted if you use the form! You don’t have to list your ten favorites in any order; just pick up to ten images and submit your vote. (The number for each photo is in the caption underneath the photograph. Also, you can click on the images to see them larger.)

Related Posts: My Top Photographs of 2024; My Top Photographs of 2023; My Top Photographs of 2022; My Top Photographs of 2021

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.” alt=”1. Chinstrap penguin calling, Antarctica” width=”690″ height=”433″ class=”size-full wp-image-26650″ /> 1. Chinstrap penguin calling, Antarctica[/caption]