What’s a New Year’s Eve without a Year in Review? I wrote that back in 2023, and the answer is still the same… rubbish! This year, we’re not doing a video Year in Review because with only a couple of YouTube videos added in 2025, it feels wrong. Instead, I’m going to write it, right here.
Grab a drink and get settled in, let’s look back…
Right at the beginning of the year, everything started great! I even won the Pet Photographer of the Year award with the Societies for the shot of Never on our local beach here. It all looked so positive and wonderful!
Life is shades of grey, though, a mixture of good and bad, and without the bad bits, you don’t truly feel the good bits. This year had both in spades.
2025 has been incredibly hard, and a group of humans who know this better than anyone else are our MTog’s. They’ve been with me through all of the ups and downs, and I need to start this post by thanking them. All of them.
To every member who reached out, let me vent, shared supportive words or cried with us in the dark times – you don’t know how much I needed you.
Thank you, sincerely. I hope I can repay the gesture if you’re ever in need.
The year was overshadowed for the most part by the brutal and completely unexpected loss of the very best ginger border collie in the world. Piper started the year fit as a fiddle, keen and sharp just like normal. She’d had her tune-up and fitness built for the March MTog Retreat, but before Day 1 had even begun, everything went horribly wrong. Barely able to walk, Dan took a then collapsing Pippi straight to the vets whilst I stayed behind to welcome 22 humans into our home. The timing could not have been worse. She had a massive internal bleed from her spleen, but thanks to emergency surgery, she somehow pulled through.
The MTog Retreat was a stressful one with all sorts going on, from bombs on the beach (old munitions, detonated whilst we were there 🤦♀️) to missed flights and airport chaos. The biggest worry for everyone was Pip, who made it to the end of the week recovering with 24/7 care thanks to Dan’s Dad, and everything looked like it was getting better.
Until it wasn’t.
By the end of the following week, her body was fighting for its life. She was generating 3x the normal amount of red blood cells, but still the stats were falling fast. Everything was failing and masses were visible on her kidneys, heart and lungs too. She was bleeding internally, everywhere, all the time.
We lost her on the Friday to an incredibly aggressive cancer that spreads rapidly with a very poor prognosis: Hemangiosarcoma. She had a last walk (carried by Dan) up the hill to play with her toys, dosed up to the eyeballs to keep her comfortable, along with a final photoshoot in the yellow gorse bushes (see image) as we waited for the vet to say goodbye.
She went to sleep for the last time between the stone pillars that mark the entrance to the farm.
There were absolutely no prior signs, none at all. Hug your dogs.
Earlier in March, before all of this, I’d reached out to a couple of rescues to ask them to keep an eye out for a very special next addition to our pack. There was no rush because our list of ideal qualities was vast, and so 18 months was our timeframe to work within. This is important context, because immediately we ended up with two dogs from two different rescues needing our home straight away.
Before we lost Pip we’d already committed to Zest, an Australian Shepherd bitch who knew nothing of life outside a kennel. It’s not my first rodeo with an Aussie from exactly the same situation, so of course I said yes! Given the Lakes Retreat coming up in April, we asked if we could wait to collect her – it wouldn’t be fair to her to have so much upheaval in such a short space of time. That request was granted, so mid-April was Zest’s Gotcha Day.
Lemon was different, and fast. We already knew Lemon well, we fostered her a few years ago and offered her a home back then, before Ren arrived, but she was already placed and destined for a different sofa. This year, she’d found herself in a bit of uncertainty and so of course we said we were there for her too. She arrived at the very start of April and actually came to the Lakes Retreat – thankfully she hadn’t forgotten any of her foster pup training and she was an absolute star throughout.
By the end of April, we were already in semi-chaos. Reeling from a major loss and doing puppy training (yep, including toilet training!) with a 1.5-year-old Aussie, re-establishing pack dynamics and settling everyone in together as best we could. Surely it was time for a break?!
Of course not!
May kicked off with Sh!t Hot Shots Bootcamp, a 6-month live-filled online course held in a secret space within the Vault for over 100 students. Every month, we did a Location Review session and an Image Review session for students, and every month we went out and photographed the dogs for the students to watch back too!
SHSB ran until November, and the student transformations have been honestly staggering. Here is the Before & After for our “Queen of Bootcamp”, Katharina Movik from Norway:
Throughout the entire summer period, I also judged. A LOT.
This year, I spent a total of 39 days judging for the Australian Photographic Prize, Pet Photographer of the Year, The Societies, The BIPP, Click Awards and the Swedish Photographic Championship.
At the same time, we began filming for the Equine Photography Course after releasing another course, InDesign 101, all whilst SHSB was still running! Also at the same time, Velia was going through her grading prep and studwork, resulting in a first premium (top grade) in September and a positive pregnancy scan. She should foal in May 2026 ❤️
The EPC filming took about 40 full days, the planning beforehand took about the same (perhaps more!), but the cutting is where time truly evaporates! One full 4TB hard drive and 2 months of processing videos later, the 100-lesson course was ready to go in November. Late was not an option, because we tried to time the launch perfectly with Black Friday to give students maximum savings. Thankfully, it went off without a hitch and the 6-module Equine Photography Course is now alive, already with absolutely glowing reviews!
By November, we were all exhausted, and thankfully, we’d had the foresight to say “not this year” to Advent. It would have been too much, given that I had 4 months of burnout in the middle there, and both Dan and I have multiple sick family members whom we really wanted to spend time with. Therefore, December was a catch-up month of everything that we’d missed before the 21st, which was the start of our first holiday break since 2019.
We spent the entire break up at 6am and asleep at midnight as we DIY’d any hours that existed in every single day. BUT, we also recharged a bit, spent time with family (who also helped to DIY at times!) and spent a lot of quality time with our animals. It was perfect.
Please note, the following section contains details about working gundogs on active shoots. If you are likely to find this content uncomfortable or difficult to read, please skip it and head to the next solid line below
Bryt has spent a couple of days this year doing what she was bred (but not trained) to do: flushing and then picking up birds for a very, very small local shoot on the adjacent land here at the farm, where we walk daily. I know this section of the Year in Review will be controversial. I, too, have mixed feelings about this type of thing and do hold some heavy judgments. However, the birds she flushed and collected are right here (literally), prepared and cooked in our food to cover about 10 meals for the next month. The food miles and carbon footprint could not be lower, and nothing is wasted.
Watching Bryt work was a masterclass in genetics and exceptional selective breeding for those working dog traits – in the very best of ways.
I’ve spent 0 minutes training her to do any of what she did on those two days on the hill, but she just did it. From quartering to finding quarry, flushing it in the right direction, peeling off to return to quarter again on repeat for entire drives, she was exceptional.
Then, with two lost birds to find, she appeared in full view of the other handlers with one she’d found, returning straight to me and placing it directly into my hands. Without any cues, she immediately sat and waited for her next cue to go out again. I was dumbstruck. She’s never been trained to find or retrieve anything other than a ball, and certainly not present it perfectly and immediately disengage with the deceased animal she literally just “won” in her own game of hide and seek. HOW?!
Well, genetics. She was heavily complimented by those watching, but I had to be honest and say I couldn’t take any credit. She just did it, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy either. Again, hug your dogs, especially if they’re super proud of their jobs.
Also, if you are not vegan or vegetarian, please check the food miles and ethics of where your food comes from. Buy local and ensure it is as “ethical” as physically possible, please!
For the members, many of whom have been with us for years, the Vault saw somewhat of a transformation in 2025 too.
The 2025 Member Survey voted for the creation or removal of different MTog resources. Two notable losses for us were TogTalk Magazine, whose final volume in July contains the full survey results, and Monthly Missions. Their removal marked the start of new resources, including Live Clinics. These clinics are recorded live Zoom calls with a short presentation at the start, before jumping into open discussion. The recordings are available for just 7 days after the call completes, and the second half of 2025 saw two such clinics: One on Photo Series and one on Book Projects for Business.
The list of MTog Resources throughout the entirety of 2025 is vast, but of course, I have favourites! My top picks are below:
For Imaging (Shooting):
Top Pick: Action Photography 101
This resource is my top pick of the year because it is 1 hour and 7 minutes of non-stop information. EVERYTHING you need to know about shooting sharp action shots is in here, including some very specific notes for Canon Mirrorless cameras, which need a different technique than other bodies! Also, Lemon had a blast, so I love that too!
For Imaging (Retouching):
Top Pick: Finn’s Memory, the Live Edit
This is my top pick of the year for retouching because it was a highly requested resource and the MTog’s versions of this process made my heart melt. What a tribute to the very best golden oldie there ever was 🥹
The Students joined me on Zoom with the raw files and we processed our way to a conceptual reflection piece where the top Finn is turning to dust and his reflection remains intact below. This image was shot at my favourite Lake District location when we were checking shooting spots for the very first MTog Retreat back in 2024.
Other notable and complex edits this year include the Complex Composite with the wolfdog who magically enters a new location, The Dog’s Baubles mammoth retouching workflow to bend a Christmas tree, and the Family Photo, compositing images shot on the farm driveway into a 2025 Dog Squad image. There are many more, but these are up there with the best workflows ever!
For Business:
Top Pick: Designing a Session Guide
At the very start of the year, a request came in to help provide an example for a session guide. There is already a session guide template inside Business Bootcamp, but the design for that is quite simple and allows for almost unlimited creativity.
To help provide a specific example, I redid my own for my photography business (if we can call it that, with a maximum of 9 possible photoshoot dates per year!).
The exact steps to whip up this guide from start to finish are covered inside this resource, which has been used by many as a working template from here on out. There is a pre-made purchasable template if you don’t want the how-to though, it’s here.
I do love print design, so this one was fun!
The full list of MTog resources in 2025 can be found below, and of course, inside the Vault:
Starting with Imaging…
- In Editing – Full Edits:
- Clean Studio: Full Edit
- Wide Landscape: Full Edit
- Random Shots Composite: Full Edit
- Family Photo Composite: Full Edit
- The Dog’s Baubles: Full Edit
- Live Edit: Lemon in the Flowers
- Live Edit: Finn’s Memory
- Live Edit: Studio Puppy Clean-Up
- In Editing – Other Bits:
- Black & White Retouching (and shooting tips!)
- All About Liquify
- Bracketing: The Merge
- Making hair/fur brushes in Photoshop
- Sky Replacements: Simple to Advanced
- Tip: How to make a Lightroom Preset
- Tip: Fog & Haze Refinement
- Tip: Editing Equine Eyes
- In Shooting…
- Behind the Shot: The “Clearing”
- The Dog’s Baubles: Ideation & Shooting
- Focal Lengths & Lens Choices
- Meadow Portraits: Portraits in Long Grass
- Action Photography 101: Everything you need to know
- Shooting a Family Photo (for a mega Composite!)
- Live Clinic: Photoseries
Then in the Business Section:
- Designing a (banging) Session Guide
- AI & SEO, with expert Harry Boxhall
- The Gift Certificate Campaign
- How to Win at Conversations
- Business Plans: A How-To
- Market Anxiety: AI & Competitors
- Shooting for Free: The How, What, When and Why
- Working with Agencies
- Designing Landing Pages
- All about Gift Certificates (and making them work for you)
- SEO for LLMs
- Live Clinic: Book Projects
- The Base System for Marketing
New other things:
- Live Goal Setting Clinic & Check-In Clinic [6 months later]
- 20×16 Print Competition Debriefing
- All about Burnout
- TOG Awards Winners Announcement
- 2 TogTalk Volumes
- 11 Monthly Missions & Review Videos
- 12 Business Co-Working Corners
- 12 Business Accountability Check-Ins
- 24 Live Q&As (two per month)
- 52 Weekly Goal Accountability Check-Ins
- and a whopping 425 Deep Critiques.
Our two previously mentioned MTog Retreats were incredibly special. Yes, we worried for, and then grieved, Piper, but both the Lakes and Scotland Retreat in 2025 were memory makers for all the best reasons! Here are our group photos from this year:
Alongside ALL OF THAT (I know, it’s a LOT!), there was also one-to-ones!
2025 saw a grand total of 65 online one to ones, some with regulars who book in multiple times a year to keep growing, learning or to stay on track, and some new faces for ad hoc deep dives into either retouching, image review or business. Business one to one students saw huge successes this year, with no less than 7 hitting 4-figure average sales and maximising their marketing and lead generation.
In person sessions can’t be forgotten either. This year contained 11 in person one to ones, with about half of those falling as multi-day sessions. About 50% focused on dogs, with 50% focusing on horses. Thankfully, our local yards have willing and reliable equine models to help our students out!
Of course, then there’s Workshops, which also happened! 5 multi-student sessions were scheduled, often at other events such as the Societies Convention (sadly, the 2026 class is sold out already!) or Click Live. Each one had fantastic students who asked all the right questions and maximised their own growth whilst we were together.
Alongside all of this, Dan and I were still working daily on project Farm.
Our renovation has its own fan club online (thank you for all the moral support!) and it sure is a never-ending cavern of stress and unforeseen disasters. On the whole, 2025 went alright in this department though. No, not everything went smoothly, and yes, tradespeople are hard work at times. It’s still a mesmerising transformation to look at through photographs, even though I don’t really get too involved (because, time).
However, this winter holiday break has meant that I could actually help with my own two hands. Usually I’m project planning, organising, procuring, sorting and sometimes tidying in free gaps or late on a night. To be able to do some doing for whole full days at a time was super, and I guess now I’m part of the progress photos!
Note to all, photograph things that change over time. Whether it’s your children, your animals, your home or something else entirely – shoot it. Those memories have never been more important for us than they were this year.
And so in a very summarised version, that’s 2025 in 2,281 words. There’s so much more, but you have to be with us weekly to know the ins and outs because it happens so fast. I hope everyone made it through 2025 relatively unscathed, but I know this year has been tough for so many. I’m with you, and I’ve got your back. Let’s say goodbye to the year and look ahead to 2026 with optimism and determination – it will be a good year!
This one’s for Pip. Rest in peace, you legendary ginger carpet, we miss you every single day ❤️🩹
