california – puzzling.org

September 29, 2026September 30, 2026

365 days / 628 days

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Photography retrospectives

I started uploading photos taken in 2025 to Flickr on January 9, 2025, with this:

Today is the 628th day of 2025’s photo processing, the last publicly accessible upload I made from 2025 was:

I am still working on 2022, 2023, and 2024…

2025 retrospective

Japan

I wasn’t super happy, overall, with the photographs I took in Japan, but let it not be said that I didn’t make my family stand around in the cold for hours on my son’s 15th birthday to see a fraction of Mt Fuji:

Glimpse of Fuji through cloud from Lake Kawaguchiko / Kawaguchiko Natural Living Center

Much nicer when seen from a cozy airbridge boarding a flight to Australia:

Mt Fuji, from an airbridge at Haneda Airport

Fushimi Inari-taisha goes to a lot of effort to be photogenic, so I won’t take credit for that:

More: Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens in winter, Tokyo, Glimpses of Mt Fuji, Myoko Kogen, Winter views from Shinkansen, Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kyoto.

Sydney

This I do know how to photograph, at this point, in a good year for my phone photography:

More: Dawn in Sydney, Sydney in winter

Autumn

Even more my bullshit:

More: Autumn in Orange 2025, Autumn leaves, 2025

Culburra

Double Cross

Determined to go on ever longer walks throughout the year, I went for 26km after the 10km above:

Crowds at the Painted Ladies, Alamo Square Park

Cold spring in Lucknow

Much much more so than 2026’s spring.

Last light / contrails, Summer Hill Lane

October 16, 2025October 12, 2025

Spring in Golden Gate Park

March 2022

Tall Cape Honeyflower leaves, Golden Gate Park

October 14, 2025October 12, 2025

Muir Woods, part the first

March 2022

The first of three times I have been there. Struggling to light it was a challenge this time too; all of these photos have the exposure dialled way down, to avoid looking like the brightest gloomy forest there ever was.

All photos.

October 12, 2025October 12, 2025

Dawn in San Francisco

March 2022

August 16, 2025August 16, 2025

Double Cross

July 2025

The Double Cross Trail, perhaps the longest walk I have ever done, a cold and windy day in mid-summer.

All photos.

June 12, 2025June 9, 2025

Muir Woods

May 2025

This was my third visit to Muir Woods, but the first in my increasingly last-in-first-out photo processing queue. My longest Muir Woods walk by far, as we hiked up to Cardiac Hill via the Dipsea Trail and back down Stapelveldt and Ben Johnson (trail guide).

It is not, in reality, anything like as dark as this under the canopy of the redwoods on a bright May day, but I was wearing dark and red-tinted sunglasses and was keen to recreate the experience by underexposing my photos too.

It’s called Cardiac Hill, because, obviously. We shared it with people running the Stinson Beach marathon:

If you ascend Dipsea and then go down Stapelveldt / Ben Johnson as we did, you have to do the ascent mostly in the sun, but then you get to do the return in the shade: