End of year review and GR Photo Festival 2025 submissions

Each year Ricoh holds a contest for the best photos of the year taken with any of its GR series of cameras. As a result, at the end of the year I sort through my favorite shots taken with my GR IIIx, choose a selection, and then choose three among them to submit to the contest.

I’ve done this the last three years and it’s a nice tradition to reflect on my progress over the year. It’s been a true photography journey this past year, particularly around learning to select a strong subject, reduce clutter, and utilize negative space, which I feel are all reflected in my selections.

I wanted to consider another filter, which is what story or emotion the photos touch, but in the end I chose those which felt most artistically balanced to me. Those with a stronger emotional content include several in the dozen or so that I didn’t submit but included further down.

The first three photos are the ones that I submitted to the contest, the results of which will be released by the end of February.

Clearing a downed tree after snowstorm in Central Park

The following photos are the others that I considered, my favorites from 2025.

There were several below which were close calls for my top three, particularly the one in the spinning strawberry and the boy jumping across the snow rock outcropping in Central Park. This photo was a product of my recent attempts to use black and white to practice introducing contrast into my images.