And just like that, there goes another year.

It’s certainly been a challenging one for me personally, with ongoing health issues meaning I haven’t done any client shoots at all in 2025. I’ve tried to keep shooting wherever I could, but after a very difficult time at the Unleashed Team Retreat in Arrowtown in April, I realised I wouldn’t be able to work in the way I usually do, at least not for now.

So after wrapping up my last few Dogs of the World shoots in January, my camera time this year has mostly been limited to teaching workshops and volunteering adoption photography for the rehoming charities I regularly work with, and that’s about it. I’ve even put my next personal project on hold until we get to the bottom of my neck and back issues (it’s looking like another surgery, with more tests happening in January).

I’m still managing to get around a bit, and as seems customary at this time of year, I’m currently travelling. Right now, I’m in southern Iceland and about to head off to visit family in Guernsey. I feel extremely fortunate that I can travel at all, and even more so that this is the second Christmas I’ve spent in Iceland. This year wasn’t a white one though - just very wet and very windy.

We spent Christmas day visiting the stunning Kirkjufellsfoss.

I am completely besotted with this beautiful island. It’s breathtaking and endlessly inspiring, and I’m excited to be returning again in 2026 for the Unleashed Retreat and Workshop. There are still a couple of places left if you’d like to join us. 😉

Finishing work on my book, Dogs of the World, has been one of the biggest accomplishments of 2025. I can’t wait to start shipping copies out in 2026, and naturally, a couple of images from those final shoots have made it into my top 10 this year.

Here's the digital mock-up of the special edition of Dogs of the World!

Also featured are a few studio images created for the Pet Lighting Mastery course I made with Richard Wood, and images I created during the Unleashed Workshop in Nova Scotia, Canada.

I was fortunate to have some awards success again in 2025. My image of English, the caravan hound, photographed at the Taj Mahal in India, won gold awards at the NZIPP Iris Awards, the International Pet Photography Awards, and The Society of Photographers. It was also selected as one of the representative images for Team New Zealand in the World Photographic Cup. Another image, of Milllefeuille - my much-missed sphynx cat - won me the title of International Phone Photographer of the Year at the Australian Photographic Prize.

Charlotte with her Australian Animal Photographer of the Year trophy at the NZIPP Gala dinner.

But I think the highlight of the year for me was sharing the stage with Charlotte at the NZIPP New Zealand Photo Show and judging alongside her at the IRIS Awards. The week ended beautifully with the chance to see Charlotte’s reaction at the gala dinner when she was announced as Australian Pet Photographer of the Year.

I can’t possibly finish this round-up without mentioning that we officially added a new family member to the house this year. Little Miss Holly, AKA Hollybob, AKA Bobble. She’s Ralph’s full sister from the same litter and has slotted in beautifully. Though we could probably have done without her over-excitement when her favourite dad, Chris, came home from work - resulting in three knee surgeries and ongoing rehab!

Little Miss Holly feeling sorry for herself after her third knee surgery.

That’s enough wrapping up. Let’s get to the images, shall we…

English

I met English on the banks of the Yamuna River opposite the Taj Mahal. The caravan hound (also known as a Mudhol hound) is an old Indian sighthound breed. This was a dream shoot, both English and his owners were a joy to work with. But the session wasn't without some adrenaline, when armed guards charged at us pointing their guns and filming us, I casually kept taking photos while our guide spoke to them. All was well, they just told us we had to move 100 metres along the river to take photos, we couldn't shoot in the spot we were standing, so after making me delete the images I captured there, they showed us where to go and left us to it!

This has been one of my most successful award prints to date and I'm thrilled that a little known breed has had a little bit of attention. English will feature in my Dogs of the World book and I can't wait to share more images of him.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 150mm, ISO 800, 1/500th sec, ƒ/8, 20 image panorama

Sam

Sam was a model for the filming of Pet Lighting Mastery, a course I created with Richard Wood, which is now available on the Unleashed Platform. We were creating a lesson demonstrating dynamic light and Sam did a fabulous job. But when the treats came out, the drool soon followed. Sam's mum said that is something that has always happened where food and Sam are concerned, so we decided to capture an image that showed the goofy, drooly side of his personality!

Canon EOS R5 mII, Canon RF 100mm ƒ/2.8L Macro, ISO 200, 1/200th sec, ƒ/9

Ralph and Holly 

My little monkeys! Ralph is no stranger to my end of year top 10's, but this year, Holly is making her debut. This was taken at our favourite beach and was Holly's first official photoshoot. Ralph is a ham for the camera (because working means treats, naturally). And I love seeing him so full of confidence here with Holly on the left looking to him for guidance.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 200mm, ISO 500, 1/1000th sec, ƒ/2.8

Millefeuille

Words can't describe how much I miss this little guy, there is a void in the home where he always was, even though he's been gone for 18 months or so. However, I was going though some old images of him and I have always loved this one. It just shows him doing what he always loved doing, chasing the sun and basking in it's warmth. So I decided to enter it into a couple of competitions. It's always a risk when its an image so personal, and I thought even more so when it was a phone capture. But the Australian Photographic Prize has a phone category, so I thought 'why not' and I tried my luck. Much to my surprise, I was awarded 'international Phone Photographer of the Year for this image.

Apple iPhone 1 Pro, 52mm equiv, ISO 20, 1/340th sec, ƒ/2

Ekko

Ekko the bearded collie modelled for us at Barkjavik, and I immediately wanted to photograph him with fur blowing in the wild wind we had at Reynisfjara beach that day. This is an image I brought further to life in print for competition with an old printing technique, platinum on vellum over silver leaf. The technique makes a wrinkled, shimmering, translucent print with black edges. I love how the light falls on the print and its wrinkles make it feel like the wind flowing. This formed part of my finals set at NZIPP this year receiving a gold award.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 70mm, ISO 250, 1/1600th sec, ƒ/5.6, 8 image panorama

It's hard for an image of the print to do justice to the technique, but I hope it gives you some idea of how it looks!

Ivy

One of the locations for the Unleashed Workshop shoots in Nova Scotia this year was Lake O'Law. The lake scene was set in front of a mountain filled with autumn colour. Ivy the German shepherd was a model for one of the shoots. Ivy is a stick aficionado, and I believe she has collected seven of the very best sticks in this image!

Canon EOS R5 mII, Canon RF 135mm ƒ/1.8L, ISO 400, 1/500th sec, ƒ/1.8

Fox and Jasper

At one of our Nova Scotia beach shoots during the Unleashed workshops, we had some terrible weather. Pouring rain and just as we'd called the shoot a day after about an hour, out of the blue a rainbow appeared. Queue a dozen dog photographers frantically trying to capture images while apologising to some very soggy owners! This is one of my favourites, I love that Fox, the mudi, looks similar to images of fighter jets breaking the sound barrier, only his speed is piercing a ring of water!

Canon EOS R5 mII, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 77mm, ISO 100, 1/1600th sec, ƒ/2.8

Fire

Fire is a dog in the care of rehoming charity Kiwi Kiwi Hound Adoption. He had a serious shoulder injury and I was asked to photograph an end of life session for him. A little different to my usual adoption photos. We went to the beach and we actually did a cake smash shoot with him. But this was my favourite image, just him and his reflection on the wet sand. Without getting political about the bureaucracy of racing, I couldn't understand why such a seemingly happy dog, who certainly had visible evidence of injury, but looked like he was healing and could be managed, had to be euthanised. Thankfully Fire was given a reprieve thanks to the the fantastic folk at Kiwi Kiwi and his vets. 

Canon EOS R5 mII, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 115mm, ISO 160, 1/800th sec, ƒ/2.8, 12 image panorama

Grimley Blue

Grimley Blue was another model for the Pet Lighting Mastery course and he was spectacular! I won't lie, meeting him and his siblings was quite upsetting, they were the first sphynxes I've met since losing Millefeuille. But ultimately it was wonderful spending time with such a charismatic breed and we had lots of fun with coloured gels.

Canon EOS R5 mII, Canon RF 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L at 63mm, ISO 100, 1/200th sec, ƒ/5

Kinako, Tsukune, Oyuki, James Jr & Rin

My final image is another for Dogs of the World. I've never been to Japan before and it is yet another place I totally fell in love with. The juxtaposition of ancient temples and modern glass sky scrapers, the history and culture and the food, which had me drooling like Sam, was fabulous. In an old part of Kyoto, I met five Shiba Inu, and this is what I created. It was not the easiest logistically. This spot has become very popular, even in the early hours of a winter morning. Not to mention these dogs were total strangers, and so I had to shoot them individually, placing stones on their standing points, and compositing them together for the final result. I think the effort was worth it, I hope you do too!

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L at 70mm, ISO 4000, 1/500 sec, ƒ/2.8, 17 image panorama

Gosh, thanks for sticking with me to the end, I hope you've enjoyed some insights into my year and the images I've captured. I'd love to see your favourite images from the past year, why not share them in the Unleashed Education community! If you aren't already part of the community, it's free, just click here to join us!