This year when it came time to publish my yearly Top 15 images of the year, I was in the middle of "construction" on my website, ergo, I was not able to share a photo story on my blog because it wasn't active. So, I took a page from my friend Scott who created a slideshow of his top images. You can see the slideshow at the end of the post. But, what is the fun of just looking at images when you can also get the story BEHIND the image, that is what I enjoy the most (after taking the photos, of course!). I hope you do too!
Without further ado, here is my list, in no certain order, along with my story:
1. Michigan Train Station Renovated. I visited the train station twice in 2025, once with my friend Bryan so he can see it in it's renovated state, and the second time when I had permission to take "after" images. You can see all of my before and after images of the station if you haven't seen them already. What a difference!
2. Michigan Train Station Exterior. Sure, the interior is getting all the glory when it comes to the renovation. But changes happened to the exterior as well. The station looks so...clean. Like a bunch of gnomes gave it a deep cleaning treatment with tiny little toothbrushes. But what I was most impressed by is the main door's new marquee. You used to find these on old theaters or hotels back in the day. Some still exist out there in the world, but to have a new one put on the building...wow. A great touch for sure.
3. General Public Loans Vintage Sign. In the last couple of years I've grown more interested in photographing old vintage signs (including neon) and ghost signs (old faded advertisements on sides of buildings). I see it as an extension of my interest and passion for photographing old historical buildings. The signage goes with the buildings like peanut butter and jelly. This sign is located along Michigan Avenue in Corktown.
4. Downtown Detroit Along Woodward Avenue. You see a lot of drone images of Detroit in my Top 15 this year because I acquired the Mavic 4 Pro drone so I had been taking it out and testing its abilities. On this day I was photographing some mansions and made my way towards Woodward Ave and had some nice light and clouds. I never tire of photographing the skyline; there are endless compositions, light and skies.
5. Detroit Skyline from Grosse Pointe. I was on a real estate shoot photographing a home in Grosse Pointe on the day I took this. It was actually my first day flying my new drone so I was curious to see what reach the telephoto lens could get. I was quite impressed with the drone's ability to do a decent quality job. I can say I've never taken a photo of the city from this vantage point before, because, well, I didn't have the ability to until this day. And, quite hilariously, a cotton ball cloud decided to park itself right in the middle of the shot. Thanks, cloud!
6. Locomotive Along Woodward Ave Towards Detroit. This was taken as I was on my way home from photographing the city. It's typically rush hour by the time I'm ready to head home, so heading north on Woodward is a common route for me back to Ferndale. As I was driving under the train bridge, I noticed this locomotive sitting on the tracks, unmoving. it is not a stretch of the imagination that I pulled over ASAP, got out of my car and captured it with my drone. And yes, that is exactly what I did! And it turned out quite well. Another unique shot of the city.
7. Elmwood Alight Light Show. This was Elmwood Cemetery's first year of hosting the "Elmwood Alight" show, and was it spectacular! With it being it's first year, and never holding a public event at night before, we had no idea what to expect. My friend Bryan Levy, who loves to photograph cemeteries and has been to Elmwood dozens of times, he was the most excited out of all of us. This image is of the pond across the road from the mausoleum and down the road from the chapel. The good news is it sounds this event will be repeated in 2026. You can join their newsletter if you want to be informed of future events. I of course took several images from this evening, which you can see in my Cemeteries gallery.
8. Reid Flat Iron Building, Detroit. I have photographed this building several times in the past, but I never get tired of getting it from different vantage points. This is a straight-on shot of the side of the building using my Mavic 4 Pro drone.
9. Detroit Skyline with Brush Park. There is a story behind the creation of this panorama. It started on a real estate shoot, where I was photographing a loft on Watson St. The agent wanted to make sure I got a photo of the view. When I stepped out on the small balcony, I saw a part of this view (which was still good), you can't tell from this photo but what I saw was a building that was blocking part of this view to the left of me where the Ren Cen was blocked). She also wanted me to get the view from the kitchen window (on the other side of the loft, and this was from this vantage point I could see the Ren Cen). Now, anyone who has attempted to photograph through a window knows how challenging it is. Unfortunately, the window would not open so I was forced to take it through glass. I didn't know until I got home that the image turned out pretty good, better than I hoped. As I was looking through the other skyline images I had captured, I had the bright idea to stitch the two images together. Thanks to Photoshop, it was created and I worked my own editing magic to get this image you see below. So, this image doesn't really exist in real life. Or, maybe it does from some other vantage point, but I won't ever know. I believe this is a one of a kind view, I've never seen a skyline photo of Detroit with Brush Park in the foreground.
10. Fisher Arcade Ghost Sign + Water Tower. As you already read above, I expressed an interest in capturing ghost signs. I didn't know this Fisher Arcade ghost sign existed until a couple of months ago. If it wasn't for my drone, I probably would never have noticed it. While it would have been interesting to just photograph the sign itself, I decided to pan out and include the water tower and some of the historical facade of the surrounding buildings.
11. Building Fronts Along Woodward Avenue. This image is related to #10 image above, as after I photographed the Fisher Arcade ghost sign, I backed up my drone and noticed this nice line of buildings, isolating their interesting architectural elements. I still included the ghost sign, because, well, I could! Did you noticed there is another ghost sign in the image? It's a partial one, it says "Sedlar".
12. Brush Park Mansion, Detroit. The neighborhood of Brush Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Detroit, established in 1860. Unfortunately, many of the beautiful Victoria-era mansions have been razed starting in the 1950s. In the last decade, there have been several new buildings that have sprung up: hotels, condos and retail/restaurant. However, some have complained that the style of architecture does not match the original Brush Park feel. This mansion located at 231 Edmund Street.
13. Abandoned Warehouse with Train Car, Cleveland. It has been a minute since I have stepped inside an abandoned building. This trip to Cleveland was just what I needed to get into some industrial ruin. This location was one I have known about for over a year, but didn't have a chance to visit until the summer. I knew I wanted to see this because it is so different than anything I had seen before.
14. Downtown Cleveland from Drone. When we visited Cleveland in June, it just happened to be during the Canadian wildfires. So, there was a haze to the city that is not typically there. But what do you do when life hands you lemons? You make some lemonade! This image was originally very foggy, but using the Dehaze tool in Lightroom cleared a LOT of that haze out. However, I chose to keep some in the scene for some ambiance. Captured with my Mavic 3 Pro drone.
15. Barn. I like barns, especially barns with really unusual and unique character like this barn I found "by accident" (we know there are never really any accidents!). I photographed a barn I had recently pinned, and was then on my way to another barn. However, I got turned around with GPS and realized I was going the opposite way. But, I realized the direction I was going would get me to my destination as well so I continued on. And that is how I found this barn. I love the horse motifs on the roof!
I hope you enjoyed my Top 15 images and the Slideshow. Here's to an adventurous 2026 with many new locations photographed!
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