These are some of my personal favourite photographs from throughout each calendar year – one for each month. Higher-resolution versions of these photographs can be seen on my portfolio website at www.jholko.com. None of my photographs are HDR (High Dynamic Range) or composite images. All photographs are captured from single exposures in the field. The majority of my photographs are processed in Adobe Lightroom.

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DECEMBER 2025 – ICEBERG ICEBREAM

The photograph of the month for December 2025 comes from one of my more recent expeditions to Greenland and is of a wonderfully sculptured iceberg under heavy skies. These are my absolute favourite conditions for photographing icebergs, and the Scoresby Sund region of Greenland (where this was taken) offers the best opportunities in the world for this kind of landscape photography. Processing these photographs is always somewhat of a challenge, requiring just the right amount of finesse to extract the right amount of detail in the highlights, whilst maintaining just the right tonalities across the entire range. This is the final photograph of the month for 2025 before we roll into 2026. If time permits, I may do a bit of a retrospective post on my selection of the year’s twelve best photographs.

NOVEMBER 2025 – CHARGING WHITE HORSES

The photograph of the month for November 2025 comes from my recent workshop in the Camargue region of France, where I photographed the famous white horses. This particular photograph was a slow-shutter-speed frame, shot at 1/10th of a second. This sort of photography is always a bit of a crap shoot, as you definitely miss more than you hit. But everynow and again, when things align a really strong powerful image can result. In this case, despite the horses charging nearly head-on, I was lucky enough to get the lead horse sharp. The combination of soft, warm morning light and splashing water completes the frame. Slow shutter speed images, such as this, really help give still photography a sense of motion, bringing a photograph to life.

OCTOBER 2025 – GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST

The photograph of the month for October 2025 comes from my recent workshop in Finland (Read the Trip Report) and is of a brown bear at the forest edge about twenty minutes after sunset. I had actually packed up my camera prior to taking this photograph and was waiting in the hide for the last light to fade before exiting when this brown bear walked into the perfect position and posed in the evening mist and last fading light. This was pure serendipity – I quickly unpacked the camera, screwed on the 70-200mm f2.8, cranked up the ISO to 12,800 and grabbed a few frames. Even in this extremely low light, the Canon EOS R1 had no problem finding the bear and staying on the subject. This photograph is, for me, a wonderful example of the principle ‘less is more’. We can only see the outline and silhouette of the bear, which leaves the imagination to fill in the blanks. There is also wonderful context with the forest, rising mist and fading light.

SEPTEMBER 2025 – IBERIAN LYNX

The photograph of the month for September 2025 comes from my recent scouting trip to Spain (trip report coming soon) for the stunningly beautiful and highly endangered Iberian Lynx. Although I am very much in love with the monochromatic nature of the Polar environment, I do love the verisimilitude of the equally monochromatic colour palette in this photograph. Photographed in August, during the horrendous summer heat, the sense of environment is conveyed through a muted, warm, yellow and brown colour palette, with the imagination left to fill in the blanks. The pose of the lynx mid-stride really helps to create a wonderful sense of movement and motion, and the dust around the feet adds just the right amount of drama and emotion to the story. For me, this is the essence of wildlife photography. Whilst simple and emotive; it also tells the story of the Lynx in the environment.

AUGUST 2025 – ARCTIC FOX SNOW DRIFT

The photograph of the month for July 2025 comes from my winter Svalbard trip in April this year (Read the Trip Report). This white-morph Arctic fox was wonderfully posed on the very top of a snow drift from where it could best survey its territory. This was one of those encounters that lasted only the briefest of moments and required getting into position very quickly and without hesitation. We spotted the fox from some distance away and approached slowly on our snowmobiles. In order not to frighten the fox, we parked some distance away and approached on foot. I quickly unpacked my 600mm and approached as quietly as possible with the intention of using the beautiful snow drift to help give context to the snowy environment. Even with this careful and cautious approach, I could only squeeze off a couple of shots before the fox turned and disappeared behind the snow drift. This fox had been living in one of the abandoned coal mines and as such had a slightly grey coat, which really helped isolate it against the snow and sky.

JULY 2025 – RAZOR BILL DIVE BOMBER

The photograph of the month for July 2025 comes from my recent workshop to Grimsey Island, located north of Iceland (a trip report is forthcoming) and features a dive-bombing Razorbill during heavy winds with sleet and rain. Taken on the northern side of the cliffs, from what I felt was one of our very best days. With the high winds, it is difficult for the birds to fly close to the cliff, and they perform all sorts of fantastic aerobatics, making for superb opportunities. In this instance, I chose the background I wanted for the image and simply waited for a bird to fly into the frame. Razorbills are one of the workshop’s real highlights. These birds are incredibly photogenic, with their sharp bills and razor-white lines.

JUNE 2025 – ATLANTIC PUFFIN

Whoops! With all my workshop travel over the last month the regular monthly update for the photograph of the month almost slipped me by. This month the photograph of the month comes from my recently completed workshop to Grimsey Island (Trip Report Coming Soon) to photograph both Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills (listen to recent podcast on the Auto Focus performance of the Canon EOS R1). This photograph of an Atlantic Puffin was captured high on the bird cliffs during strong winds late in the evening. What really works for me is the combination of the Puffins wing position, the turn of its head toward the camera and the dark background of the distant ocean to isolate the subject.

MAY 2025 – REINDEER ANTLERS

The photograph of the month for May 2025 comes from my recent Svalbard snow mobile expedition for Reindeer and Arctic Fox (Read the Trip Report). This photograph, of the Reindeer in deep snow was something I have been looking for quite some years now. I always envisioned the photograph as being all about the antlers with the imagination filling in the blanks. We were extremely fortunate this year to have wonderful conditions with lots of soft snow and plenty of Reindeer.

APRIL 2025 – ALONE IN THE WHITE

The photograph of the month for April 2025 comes from my recent back-to-back workshops for Arctic fox in the far north west of Iceland in Winter this year (Read the Trip Reports). This white-morph fox was wonderfully co-operative for our group, posing on the clean snow for us for quite some minutes before disappearing over the mountains. What particularly appeals to me about this photograph is the soft blowing snow around the feet of the fox, the curled tail and of course the moment of mid yawn.

MARCH 2025 – PEEK-A-BOO

The photograph of the month for March 2025 comes from my recent workshop for Arctic foxes to the Hornstrandir Nature reserve in the far north west of Iceland (Trip Reports are coming soon). This photograph of a female white-morph Arctic fox was taken at a new location I was scouting for the first time. This new location I will be returning to in 2026 for a first time workshop. What appeals to me about this photograph is the white on white of the fox against the snow, the curl and shape of the foxes tail and the single eye that makes the perfect emotional connection with the viewer. There is both a stillness and emotive quality to this photograph that speaks to not only the story of the wildlife in the snow, but incredible beauty of this fox.

FEBRUARY 2025 – SNOW LEOPARD

The photograph of the month for February 2025, comes from my recent workshop to Western Mongolia for Snow Leopard (Read the Trip Report). What I love about this photograph is the sense of environment that surrounds the leopard and provides such wonderful context for the extreme environment in which this cat lives. At the time I took this photograph the air was thick with low cloud, snow and ice crystals which greatly adds to the enigmatic nature of this elusive wildcat. Shot with the Canon EOS R1 and Canon RF600mm f4L IS and a 1.4 TC (effective focal length 840mm). The decision of where to place the leopard was an easy intuitive one with the cat moving from left to right. The high speed capture of the EOS R1 meant I could chose the perfect frame for paw position to give the sense and feeling that the cat was on the move. In this case the gaze of the cat also perfectly compliments the lead in to the landscape.

JANUARY 2025 – MONGOLIAN IBEX

Kicking off the 2025 year, the photograph of the month for January comes from my just completed expedition to Western Mongolia for Snow Leopard (Trip Report coming soon). Although this is not an image of Snow Leopard, it is my favourite wildlife photograph from this trip. The silhouette is of a Mongolian Ibex that appeared at the very top of this mountain range for a few moments while we were milling around the vehicles at the base of the mountains. At the time the Ibex appeared, my camera was packed up in the car as we had just returned from hiking in the mountains. Hastily I grabbed my camera bag and pulled out the R1 with the 600mm and 1.4 TC. I immediately recognised that this photograph was going work best as silhouette and set my exposure accordingly. Mercifully, the Ibex remained and posed for the perfect silhouette before disappearing again over the ridge. This sort of photograph is pure serendipity and can never be planned. The key takeaway for me is not just to remain prepared in the field, but also to recognise opportunity when it presents for this sort of silhouette.