My Favorite Sports Photos Of 2025

This year I felt that I have really grown as a sports photographer. Maybe more than I have the last few years. The goal is to always move forward. My old manufacturing days taught me about the importance of continuous improvement. I have tried to bring that concept into what I do. I have hesitated this year to come up with best of lists for sports. They end up being too long because I want to include everyone and every team that has supported me. This year I will just boil it down to the one list. It will be moments that helped make this year great for me. I photographed 195 events in 2025. That is crazy to think about. That is not even including the games that I photographed for my little one. Over 200 games in a year makes it tough to pick a few photos. Over the next little bit I will try though. I am sure that I have missed something on this list.

This was the 13th season that I have made photos on the field in Ross Ade. I went to my first game in the stadium thirty years ago. Before getting onto the field I made photos from my seat in the stands. I never dreamt that I would get to be out there on the field making photos. It is amazing that I was able to, and amazing that I still get to.

This year I went to high school games to have fun. When photography is your job and your hobby you have to find times to make it your hobby. The local teams all have photographers so my photos are just kind of extra. I decided to just have fun and make photos that I want to make at games. Here I could gamble and shoot directly into the sun without worrying about messing up the moment. By making that subtle switch I had more fun this year than I have in a while. This coming year I hope that my photos for fun look more like this than the stock images that I make for work.

Twenty five years ago I was in the stands with my early digital camera making photos of Drew Brees. On this night I found myself on the field right next to him while he presented Gary Danielson with a gift from the school. It is pretty cool what I get to do sometimes. This was one of those moments where it was really cool to get to do what I do. I stumbled into this opportunity, but I am glad that I did.

This year I had a pretty cool opportunity to photography Charlie Woods when he came to play at the PGA amateur event at Purdue. I don’t get to photograph a lot of golf, but I always have fun when I do. It is a little more fun following around the son of the best to ever do it.

This year I photographed my sixth NCAA Volleyball Tournament and my fifth at Purdue. We had four games in Holloway, and this was my favorite photo from those games. Purdue won both of their games and they were headed to Pittsburgh. This was a fun team to watch this year.

This year one of my highlights was photographing the Big Ten Softball Tournament for the Big Ten. Purdue making a run in that tournament brought out more fans and more emotion. They were a game away from the Championship game, and that would have been amazing. This was my favorite photo from that run.

This past summer I got to see one of my friends kids play at Loeb Stadium as part of the futures game. Joey pitched a very good inning and I look forward to seeing how far he can go.

Last year I covered nearly every game for the West Side softball team. For two straight games this year I had the chance to photograph the team under a rainbow. When you photograph for a whole season you are always looking for something new. Here I got that chance to do something completely different.

There are many highlights when you see a team for an entire year. One that really stands out was a walk off home run to give Coach Fry her 100th win. It was a really cool moment with a pretty great celebration.

I have been a fan of the Purdue women’s team for far longer than I have been a fan of the men’s team. I have been lucky enough to have been at nearly every home game for both teams in 2025. This was a photo that I worked on for almost a half to get it just right. The timing had to be there, and I was lucky enough that it all worked out. In 2025 I hope to photograph many wins for this team.

When I was younger I absolutely loved to watch Calbert Cheaney play basketball. I would pretend be either him or Michael on the court. He is now on the staff of the IU team, and I was able to see him and talk to him when the Hoosiers came to town. I can’t say it enough how lucky I am to get to do what I do. This is just another reason why.

We are watching something special with Braden Smith. It seems like I have been saying that about Purdue basketball players for a while now. This has been an incredible run for Purdue in the last few years. Braden is on pace to end his career with over 1,000 assists, and has a real shot at being the all time NCAA assist leader. He has been really fun to photograph, and I get one last little ride with him this winter.

Here comes the part of the post where I embarrass my kids. I can’t put up a post with my favorite sports photos of the year and not talk about them. At times I feel like everything that I have done in my sports photography has led me to a place where I can make the best photos for them. I am very biased, but the photos that I make of them are by far my favorite. It is fun to watch them grow and learn playing softball. They have also made me into a huge softball fan as well. As I write this I can’t wait until spring when I get to follow them around again.

Trophies are the fun part of what we do. I will end the post with some of my favorite trophy photos from 2025.