What can I say about 2025 other than, wow?
From the devastating wildfires to needing major surgery on my right shoulder, things started quite ominously. While our neighborhood was spared, my heart goes out to my friends, colleagues, and fellow Angelenos who weren’t as fortunate. January 2025: a month which will live in infamy.
I hate starting the recap with such a haunting image, but it feels inauthentic to not pay tribute and recognize how the Palisades and Eaton Fires impacted my adopted city of 21 years. I snapped this shot at 6:54am on my way to the gym. I hope I never see clouds of smoke traveling above Sunset Blvd like that again.
The National Football League’s 32 teams have made a recent tradition of creating highly anticipated schedule release videos as a way to creatively share the details of their upcoming season. I had the pleasure of shooting the New York Giants’ entry. As a Bostonian, this posed some moral questions, but I made the best of the situation. You can watch our video and read more about it here.
All good things come to an end. After numerous years creating countless hours of content for Disney’s Princess YouTube channel, they rebranded/reorganized their channels and our services became obsolete. I had never had a recurring gig like this, as they are pretty rare. Shooting quarterly since May of 2023 felt comforting. It’s sad to know that we won’t get the gang back together every few months. In an effort to keep things fun on the set, I bought fake mustaches for the crew to wear after seeing how big a hit they were with my family when my niece and nephew visited days before the shoot.
On April 3rd at the historic TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, our short film, Gracie Turns 15, premiered at the 25th Annual Beverly Hills Film Festival. I wrote a detailed account of the film’s origin story, which features Ging Chen’s wonderful BTS photography. After our packed premiere, Ari Somerfield (writer/director/editor) and I decided to make it available to watch online for free. Enjoy!
Building on the success of last year’s Create Your World webseries, Disney ordered a follow-up, Care For Your World. We reunited almost the entire team from last year to shoot this spiritual second season. Of the 5 production days across town, shooting at The Gentle Barn had the greatest impact. As a vegan, I loved how they banned any animal products from set. I also got to know the founder, Ellie Laks-Weiner, and hope to collaborate with her and her team on other pro-vegan projects. Our stills photographer, Jiro Schneider, wonderfully captured my camera operator, Max Schmige enjoying the company of an emu while gathering b-roll.
After this fun photo shoot with Rob Lowe for American Greetings and their hilarious e-card product, Smash Ups, I finally refreshed the photography galleries on my website and added a completely new section for this type of work, “on set.” While we didn’t have a conversation, he holds a dear place in my heart from one of my favorite films growing up, Tommy Boy. This classic scene came true in my life thanks to Melissa sharing her two wonderful brothers with me.
Back in February of 2013, I shot a promo for Jamie T. Moore, who made a rare appearance in the director’s chair. In our countless other collaborations, he’s usually the EP or Producer. I’m thrilled he brought me back over twelve years later when he returned to the helm for the Subaru Loves Learning campaign featuring Max Greenfield. Just like the Rob Lowe gig, I combined my love of cinematography and stills as the job required both. I love showcasing my newly acquired FUJIFILM GFX 50S II. It’s a beast and I’m completely smitten. The timing couldn’t have been better as Melissa’s Subaru Forester needed service. Our filming location just happened to be less than a mile away from her usual dealership. Kismet?
Here’s a brain twister: my dear cinematographer friend, Josh Allen, recommended me for a job shooting the football star who shares his name! What are the odds he would be unavailable to meet his “twin?” This is extra funny to me, because after the superstar quarterback won his first MVP in 2024, I added that to my Josh’s contact info: Josh Allen CSC MVP. Sadly, Pepsi never published the content that I shot with the future hall of famer so I can’t share the killer still of him. Thanks to back-to-back handheld vertical gigs, my rig is 100% dialed in and ready for more 9×16 action.
Natalie Avital and I have been scheming on a way to shoot her short film Chili Cheese Fires for nearly three years and it finally became an anamorphic reality in July. I’m really excited for this one as it’s a very special script and we paired it with some amazing visuals.
Collaborating with Aubrey Smyth is always a joy. Thanks to this multi-city pharma gig, I crossed a very California thing off of my bucket list: visit Lake Tahoe! Unfortunately, the circumstances of our visit were less than ideal as a result of a late inning schedule change. After shooting all night on a short film, I took an Uber directly from set to Burbank airport Thursday morning, where Aubrey met me at the Reno airport (she lives in NYC), we rented a car, and headed for the famed lake. You can see the excitement as I ran into the water for the first time. We returned to Reno Thursday evening to prep for our Friday morning shoot there and then drove back to Tahoe right after wrap. Thankfully I didn’t have to fly home until Saturday night so I had a full 26 hours surrounded by the beautiful scenery. Who needs sleep, right?
In a full circle moment, my final gig of the year happened to be in Altadena documenting work by Habitat for Humanity rebuilding in the area. Huge thanks for Mark Edwards for the great snap. I also learned a fun fact that I’ll carry with me forever: it’s traditional for people who volunteer with Habitat to sign studs inside the homes that they help build. I’m inspired to find an event nearby and if you are too, then click this link.
It’s impossible to recap the year in pictures without a few monumental personal shots, so please excuse me for not sticking to the usual 10. On 3/22/25, I brought Melissa to the bar where we met to propose and made a (semi) believable excuse to document the occasion. Believe me when I say that I don’t normally walk around our neighborhood with my Insta360/selfie stick on a Saturday afternoon.
I’m so grateful that my talented friends captured the moment with two still cameras, and a video camera (Sara Jackson, Dalton Gaudin, and Josh Allen CSC MVP). As much as I love the establishing shot from my Insta360, these other angles are too good to ignore. If you’re curious to see the video I edited together with the materials, then watch it now.
The year ended in the most spectacular way possible, on 12/13/25 (notice a theme: 3/22/25 engagement. If you don’t see it, then here’s a hint: it involves addition). I married the love of my life, Melissa Thompson. While our amazing photographer, Jorden Alexander, captured so many perfect shots from the unforgettable day, Melissa and I are both obsessed with this one taken outside of our venue downtown.
Moving forward, I’ll include 10 work shots plus 3 personal ones in honor of my new job title, husband. Why 13? Well this is my 13th time making these posts, I ended up sharing 3 bonus personal shots here, and our anniversary is the 13th!
Feeling nostalgic? Continue down memory lane with these links to the twelve previous yearly recaps: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013. What’s your favorite shot of the bunch?
Leave a reply