It probably comes as no surprise that 2025 was yet another huge year, both personally and professionally, with plenty of travel, teaching, judging, and photography along the way.

In April, Team Unleashed headed to Arrowtown, New Zealand for two intensive weeks of filming and planning. Craig, Fi, Bex and I worked long days creating filming educational content, setting up our new off-Facebook community (free to join), and planning for the year ahead. We also managed to squeeze in a handful of personal shoots with some canine models, both old favourites and new, several of which feature in my Top 10 this year.

Then came the professional photography competitions!

Along with running and judging the International Pet Photography Awards, I was invited to judge the Australian Photographic Prize and the NZIPP IRIS Awards. The IRIS Awards provided my first live judging experience. It was a bit daunting, especially on the panel with so much other incredible photography talent (imposter syndrome much?) but I soon settled into it and had so much fun judging and discussing the entries. The Awards were followed by the annual NZ Photo Show, where Craig and I presented a Workshop on stage, followed by a beach dog photography practical masterclass. Education continues to be the heart of everything we do, so being able to share knowledge in these spaces was incredibly rewarding.

I also entered the IRIS Awards and was honoured to receive my first Gold award, followed by being named 2025 Australian Professional Animal Photographer of the Year. A moment I truly didn’t see coming, that you can read more about here, and see all my latest awards on my website here.

October was spent overseas again, this time running three back-to-back Unleashed Workshops in Nova Scotia. Autumn delivered spectacular locations, unforgettable shoots, and a huge editing backlog that I am still chipping away at. The workshops were intense but hugely rewarding, and several images from that month made it into this collection. If you want to see more about what we got up to in Canada, check out the recap of our Nova Scotia Unleashed Workshops here.

Back home, the final months of the year were all about wrapping up our Unleashed Challenge courses, welcoming Hinckley to Team Unleashed as our full-time customer service specialist, and completing a mix of personal, client, and end-of-life sessions.

Oh, and planning our 2026 and 2027 workshops and retreats!

As always, these ten images represent more than just favourite photos. Each one is tied to a moment, an experience, or a chapter of the year that shaped my work and my teaching.

Thanks for following along. I hope you enjoy this look back at my Top 10 images from 2025.

Paddy the Labrador Retriever in Queenstown Gardens, NZ

What a stunning, beautifully conditioned Labrador Retriever Paddy is! We met up with his mum, Caitlin, in Queenstown Gardens to film content for new Unleashed course material. The focus of the session was finding the light in a busy and challenging location, which we covered quickly. That gave us time to move on to more advanced techniques, including this multi-image stitch.

I immediately loved the frame created by these trees and pictured Paddy standing right here, with a gentle curve through his body to echo the curve of the branches, also drawing attention to the lines and profile of his gorgeous head. The warm autumn colours also worked beautifully with Paddy’s colouring, tying the whole image together.

I entered this image in the International Pet Photography Awards, receiving a Silver Award.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 400, 1/1000 sec, ƒ/1.8 (multi-image stitch)

Ralph the White Swiss Shepherd in Wanaka, NZ

During the two weeks Team Unleashed spent in New Zealand together, we also snuck in a few “just for fun” shoots. No students, no filming, just us with beautiful dogs in gorgeous locations, shooting together. Bliss!

Our trip to Lake Wanaka was magic. Tall yellow poplars lined the lakefront, adding plenty of colour, but the view across the lake toward the looming blue mountains was also incredibly stunning. Autumn leaves scattered along the shore added a pop of colour, and I was lucky to spot the chance to include Ralph’s reflection in a puddle.

He was running around off-leash, chasing toys into the water, and this image is a great reminder that you can still create something special simply by being ready to capture what’s happening in front of you. Not all pet portraits need to be posed!

I entered this image in the International Pet Photography Awards, receiving a Silver Award.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS @ 75mm, ISO 2000, 1/1600 sec, ƒ/2.8

Reaper the Belgian Malinois in Cromwell, NZ

About an hour from our base in Arrowtown lies the small town of Cromwell, known for the fruit orchards that surround it. In autumn, these orchards come alive with brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow, making it a favourite shooting location when we’ve run dog photography workshops in the area in past years.

We had to pay the place a visit and met up with friends who just happen to have some pretty amazing dog models. Reaper, owned and adored by his mum Madi, is breed-typically intense but also a very well-behaved boy, and he posed beautifully for me among the long avenues of fruit trees. We were lucky enough to have some sunshine for this shoot too, which really was the icing on the cake.

I entered this image in the International Pet Photography Awards, receiving a Silver Award.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 250, 1/640 sec, ƒ/1.8

Enzo, Fletcher and Opal the Australian Shepherds, at home in Brisbane

What would be a top 10 post be without some images of my own dogs, collectively known as the furry terrors. I also needed to provide proof that I did in fact spend some time at home in what was a very busy year of international travel! I love my home, and my pups, and combine that with a serendipitous rainbow - heaven.

This image appears in my 2026 Furry Terrors calendar - my yearly personal project. See all the images included in the calendar in this post on Facebook.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 1000, 1/800 sec, ƒ/1.8 (multi-image stitch)

Atta-Girl and Basil in Nova Scotia

The vast majority of my shooting this year happened in Nova Scotia while teaching three back-to-back Unleashed Workshops, so it makes sense that a few images in my Top 10 come from this time. At the start of each shoot, Craig and I break the ice with a live shooting demo, working with the dog models to show how we choose a location, read the light, and work with and pose the dogs.

This image was made right at the start of a very early morning session on a gorgeous flat trail near where we were staying. It had just rained, leaving plenty of puddles, so the obvious choice was to position the dogs and shoot from an angle that captured their reflections. I then “shot around” the edges of the frame with the intention of stitching the images together to expand the field of view, while keeping the super shallow depth of field that renders both the foreground and background beautifully soft.

I'm so happy with how this came together, especially as it was my demo shot!

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 4000, 1/640 sec, ƒ/1.8 (multi-image stitch)

Laika the Siberian Husky in Nova Scotia 

What do a bunch of pet photography teachers do on their “days off” between workshops? Photograph dogs, obviously. After our first week with students, we invited some of the dog models we’d already worked with back to our favourite locations for an instructor-only play session.

Laika was carefully kept out of the water for most of the afternoon to preserve her glorious coat, but right at the end we gave her the green light for a swim. Cue absolute chaos. She launched herself out of the lake after sticks (not actually catching any, of course), while I set myself up on the shoreline with the camera held right down at water level. That angle let me frame her against the stunning autumn foliage on the hillside behind.

I love the contrast between the warm autumn tones and the cold blue of the water, and the strings of water frozen mid-air. They almost look like ice sculptures, and they make this image feel full of movement, energy, and joy.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 5000, 1/1250 sec, ƒ/1.8

Steel the German Shepherd in Nova Scotia

Steel was one of our favourite models from the workshops. He came along to multiple shoots and was not only incredibly well behaved, but also absolutely stunning. He and his mum share the most beautiful relationship, complete with a backstory she generously shared with us, and she could pose him with ease, standing or sitting however the students requested.

During a quiet moment, I noticed Steel sitting in the middle of the trail, facing away. The background was perfect, and I loved how the dark colouring of the fur on his back echoed the darker tones behind him, and his facial markings. I asked Monica to have him stay exactly where he was, then look back toward her, which created a gorgeous expression and a composition I still absolutely love.

I actually showed the full edit of this image in a Live Edit, so if you're a Premium Member, you can watch it come to life in real time in the call replay!

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 640, 1/640 sec, ƒ/1.8

Tango the Border Collie in Nova Scotia

We knew we had to include a waterfall as one of our workshop shooting locations, so we visited several during our pre-workshop location scouting in search of the perfect spot. Uisge Bàn ticked all the boxes. A walking trail runs alongside the creek, filled with epic autumn colour that shifted and changed across the three weeks we spent shooting there, and ends at a beautiful little waterfall surrounded by boulders and blanketed with fallen leaves. Magic!

It wasn’t the easiest location to shoot. Tucked deep in a valley, the light was limited and mostly overhead, and there wasn’t much room to move. Even so, our students created some stunning images.

Without a tripod, capturing a sharp slow shutter speed image was always going to be a challenge, but I managed to brace the camera on a rock, and had a rock-star dog willing to hold still for a 0.6 second exposure.

I would have loved Tango positioned a little further to the right, framed between the waterfall streams, but I still adore the colour and feel of this image. The slow shutter speed gives the water a beautiful softness, and shooting wider than I usually do at 35mm really helped capture the magic of this incredible location.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 35mm ƒ/1.4L, ISO 100, 0.6 sec, ƒ/13

Princess the German Shepherd in Brisbane

As soon as I returned from Canada, I had an urgent session with this beautiful girl, Princess. A deeply loved family member of Ali, the furry terrors’ groomer, she had been by her side for half her life and there for the beginning of her little family. This shoot had been on the cards for some time, but with Princess’s health declining quickly, it became important to make it happen without delay.

We spent a beautiful afternoon together at my favourite pine forest location north of Brisbane. The conditions were perfect. Calm air, warm sunshine, and even a pastel coloured sunset - especially lucky given the intense heat and storms either side of that day.

Princess wasn’t super mobile, but she stood proudly for one last photo session, posing with her family so I could capture a few final memories. She crossed over to the big dog park in the sky the very next day. It was a beautiful, bittersweet session, and one I feel incredibly privileged to have photographed for Ali and her family.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 1250, 1/1000 sec, ƒ/1.8

Winter the Brumby in Brisbane

My final shoot of the year was with my friend Sammy and her mare, Winter. Winter was the horse that launched Sammy’s journey into rescuing, domesticating, and training wild Brumbies. Shortly after joining her family, Winter gave birth to a colt right in the middle of a thunderstorm. Naturally, his name is Thunderstorm, and over the years he’s turned grey, just like his mum.

Sammy now has five Brumbies, all caught in the wild and domesticated, who help her in her work as a psychologist providing animal-assisted therapy. Alongside her horses, dogs, chickens, and goats (she has quite the menagerie), she works with neurodiverse young people to help improve their quality of life. I find endless inspiration in what Sammy does with her animals, and it was a real privilege to capture her connection with her original Brumby.

We trailered Winter out to the beautiful pine forest where I usually photograph dogs, but photographing a horse and her human there gave this old favourite location a whole new lease on life. It also opened my eyes to just how much I enjoy working with people and their equine companions, something I’m planning to do more of in 2026.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 500, 1/1250 sec, ƒ/1.8

I'd love to say that at the time of writing this (1st January, 2026) I have caught up on all my outstanding editing from 2025, but unfortunately this hasn't happened, so this will be an ongoing task in January.

We have a tonne of exciting stuff planned for 2026, of course. Would you expect anything less? In a nutshell, my year will consist of:

• Finally finishing the second edition of my book, Fetching Photos. It WILL happen this year!

• Running three Unleashed Challenges courses (Embark, Emerge and Empower) over 6 months, from May to October

• Running the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards will which no doubt be bigger and better than ever

• Running a series of Workshop Sessions in Brisbane in June (wanna come?)

• Heading over the ditch to New Zealand for the IRIS Awards and NZ Photo Show (it's official, I'm addicted)

• Heading off on a much longer journey to Iceland in late September for a four-day workshop and a five-day retreat (interested in joining us?), possibly with a little solo side-trip to the Faroe Islands to recharge afterwards

Some goals for the year include riding my horses more, buying a new horse float (trailer) and shooting more equine photo sessions - after all, 2026 is the Chinese zodiac Year of the Horse! 🐴