After leaving the south to travel up to New York in October, we’ve since descended back down the coast to spend the holidays with friends and family. And also to replace the electrical system in our van build. Long story… Now that it’s January we’re on the road again.

Book ended by travel while the majority of the year was dedicated to building out the van, 2025 was not generous with time for making photographs. Truth be told I didn’t make much work this year, as our attention was fully fixed on turning our living circumstances upside down (building the van, selling the house, re-acclimating to full-time travel, etc). I did, however, make images.

As I wrote in earlier blog posts, the Leica M9 I picked up in February was instrumental in my photographic process this year, and if I’m really being honest, single-handedly kept my head in the game while working through so many other distractions. I didn’t take a single trip this year for the sake of making images- which is how I’ve made work more or less over the past several years. I tend to prefer dedicated expeditions and earmarked time to make work rather than snapping images along the way as I see them, but as I’ve mentioned, I wanted to change this habit and be more open to capturing images as they appear.

2025 was all about opportunistic capture and seeing what was available to me, rather than hunting for scenes that I hoped would move me and that had staying power. The latter is, of course, more difficult to come across and typically requires some level of planning, focus, and time dedication. The former, however, presents itself whenever one is of the mind to look for it. In this way I took a small step in expanding my practice. Though I am looking forward to taking photographic advantage of our time on the road by camping at or near scenes and features I wish to methodically made work from, this year served as a pleasant reminder that the photographic eye isn’t something that should be put in stasis until it’s time to make portfolio work. On the contrary, it should be active at almost all times, and that there is if not beauty, interest, in seeing every day situations with a mindful gaze.

2025 proved to be a difficult year to maintain my optimism, already in short supply. It doesn’t take long to start sliding down a slippery depressive slope when one looks out at the world’s goings-on. Anxiety, a new-ish development for me, was at an all time high.

To help cope I turned again to mindfulness meditation. I’m in an unbelievably fortunate situation to have the time and mental space to be able to meditate- and not have my thoughts arrested by where my next meal is coming from or where bombs may next fall. If you’re reading this, you also are quite fortunate.

Reminding myself of these facts, and turning awareness to and expressing gratitude for each passing moment was a genuinely useful practice.

One session was particularly notable in Virginia.

We had begun our road trip and left our home empty in preparation for sale. The feeling of being untethered to a home base, while freeing, can also be somewhat unsettling. This wasn’t our first rodeo, but I was still experiencing some newly-nomadic jitters.

We had just spent the night at a Christmas tree farm in Virginia. The northern Virginia farmland and its picturesque rolling hills were classically beautiful.

That morning I walked out onto one of the hills and sat on the ground barefoot. The sun warmed my back. A subtle breeze carried birdsong. The grass on my feet I can feel even now. I sat for maybe a half hour with eyes closed, sensing these surroundings as best I could, uninterrupted. On opening my eyes and letting the landscape flood my gaze I felt literally high- euphoric in a sense. My mind was calm.

I’m no meditation master. I don’t even practice regularly, though I’m changing that. But I can say definitively that was a healing experience. For the rest of that week I felt lighter and less encumbered by worry or fret. That experience was a clear marker of that month and a half jaunt delineating the time before, and after, that experience. It was one of, if not the, most notable moments of the year for me.

Now 10 days into 2026 I’m remembering that lesson and applying it towards other aspects of my life. One way in which I’m doing this is through meditative photography. I’ll have more organized thoughts on this later.

But for now I look forward to 2026 with great anticipation. I expect this year to be extremely different from years recently passed, and I look forward to adapting to the new normal.

Hoping your 2026 is full of growth and interest.

-Z

Reviewing 2025

Full Spectrum Photography - Article

On The Road Again