#13 The Best Photos of 2024
The 24 shots that stunned my this year, how I'm editing in 2025, WILD- a groundbreaking preset pack
Welcome to issue 13. Today’s issue is a feast for the eyes as I’m sharing the best photos I’ve seen this year along with exclusive stories from the photographers behind them. Plus, I’m introducing you to my newest editing pack, WILD.
Let’s go.
How I’m Editing In 2025
The big problem for me is that we’re inundated with perfect imagery. Cameras have gotten extremely capable, lenses are sharper than ever, and I feel like we live in an 8K world where we can see too much detail in everything and everyone. We are experiencing a film photography boom, fueled by people’s desire to infuse some kind of flavor and imperfections into the life they choose to photograph. There is also the growing market for specialty lens filters that add a “glow” or a “mist” to your images (I love those, by the way). When you think about it, it’s bonkers to buy a $2899 lens only to throw a $79 filter in front of it to make the lens we worked too hard for, effectively “worse.”
But I empathize with this movement of worsening gear to take away “the digital edge.” I’m even a big proponent of it, so much so that I’ve spent the better part of this year developing new editing resources to make my images less perfect, more raw, more “surreal.”
In 2025, to paraphrase the great Todd Hiddo, I’m going to shoot like a documentarian and edit like a painter.
This takes me to my AS2 WILD Editing Preset Pack, which I’m delighted to introduce to you today. You’re getting the premiere before anyone else.
Since this is a photo issue, please allow me to demonstrate with images.
You get the idea… AS2 WILD is all about differentiation. It’s made for those images that need that extra surreal touch because within one set, multiple worlds can exist. The rules have changed. We are not bound to have the same consistent edit for every single photo. We have the freedom to create our worlds, and reinterpret reality whenever we see fit.
Get your WILD pack here. It’s on a launch sale for a limited time.
The Best Photos of 2024
Throughout the year, I meticulously save the images that stop me in my tracks or intrigue me so I can revisit them later. Up until now, those folders have stayed in the depths of my computer and I thought, why not share them with you? I look at photos every single day, I genuinely love it, and I figure that if you read this newsletter, you do too.
So… there is a grand total of 24 photos. I’m showing you the first 12 today and the remaining 12 in the next issue.
For every photo, I’ve reached out to the photographer to gather more info, anecdotes, the back story, juicy stuff. Consider this an exclusive, just for you. For the photographers I haven’t been able to make contact with (all-star legend status), I’ve dug through the archives and dissected interviews, in different languages, to bring you what I believe is most important and not the usual boilerplate interview answers we photographers tend to give when asked about the same images over and over.
#1 Flo Pernet - Paris 2024 Olympics
I love how Flo was able to get an iconic shot like this one out of hectic race schedule and tough weather — those are the shots I have the most respect for, because the photographer had to work with what they had and make the most of it.
“So it was my second day shooting for Paris 24 and fun fact, it was actually free entrance so everyone could come with their camera, no accreditation needed. That was my first time shooting cyclism and damn it was FAST. So basically for this competition, talents starts one by one on the starting line. So when someone pass in front of me, I have a gap of 2 to 3 secondes to shoot them. Then I wait for the next athlete and I have 3 seconds again. The rain was pouring all day long and I could see the reflection on the floor. Because of the weather, everything was really grey and flat, so I started to look at other perspectives and trying to embrace the weather rather than being mad about it. I shot this picture with a 15mm, so the original picture is way wider than the final result. But I love spending time during the edit to crop on details because I have full control on the composition.”
#2 Kamil Bialous - Tofino, BC
I find a lot of the surf photos out there very repetitive or factual — like sport photography. Whenever I come across one that feels absolutely right, I have to save it. I love the imperfection in the image — there are some chromatic aberrations on the subject, and the focus is not perfect, which makes this shot even more interesting to me.
“I was asked to shoot a photo essay related to surfing, for more of a lifestyle magazine, but the waves and weather had been horrible for a long time so I wasn’t sure how that was going to line up. I decided to focus on the sensations around surfing and the water, and more of the feeling around it. Photographing the feeling of something is always the most interesting for me. Thankfully we got sunny weather for about 3 days as the magazine was about to go to press and I shot every evening as a few surfers started showing up with their longboards. These were probably the first small waves of the year so the longboard crowd was stoked. I really like to push the camera sensor to its limits, and generally prefer a darker file to a light one. So with that in mind I swam every late afternoon shooting those feelings around surfing until my battery ran out in my water housing. This was a frame that happened to be in there among a few other good ones.”
#3 Coddy Cobb - DEPTHS
Ever since I saw Cody’s Cascadia series back in 2016 I’ve been a fan of his work. He seems to reinvent himself still sticking to his vision every year.
"A cold night, deep in the Uncanny Valley. An experiment with light and form in the Great Basin of Nevada, this photo captures pure surface information and allows me to print in a three-dimensional relief.
The Great Basin has a unique way of distorting time and space. Driving for hours down dirt roads with a distant cloud of dust as the only evidence that you’re not the only person remaining on Earth. Endless basins and ranges folding into one another, deep caverns descending into limestone. At night, the darkness feels absolute - no lights on any horizon, just craggy peaks emerging from shadows that your eyes never fully adjust to. It’s the kind of isolation that makes you question your own scale. It’s as exhilarating as it is haunting, a feeling that I’m always attempting to articulate in my photographs of the West.”
#4 A foggy Himalayan Morning
“A NASA Mission Control operator at Johnson Space Center captured this oblique, northward view of the Himalayas using the International Space Station's External High-Definition Camera as it orbited over central India at sunrise.
The image highlights fog flowing from the mountains into shadowed valleys to the south, a phenomenon caused by overnight cooling that condenses water vapor into fog, which dissipates with morning sunlight.
The center-right features Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site spanning 1,200 km² (460 mi²). It includes Mount Everest (the darkest triangle in the far right) along with glaciers, valleys, and seven other prominent summits.”
#5 Christophe Jacrot - Vercors
One of my favorite contemporary photographers. Christophe is constantly chasing rain and snow in obscure parts of Europe. I hope you’ll spend time looking through his site, because there is some remarkable work.
“This chalet is located in a small ski resort in the Vercors region of the French Alps. The resort is unique as it sits at a climatic boundary between the north and south. Just one cloud can bring up to eight hours of bad weather, with stronger winds and colder temperatures than most places.
I have two photos of this chalet: one from before its renovation and one after, both taken in identical weather conditions. This is the post-renovation version.”
#6 Brice Portolano - Inch of dust
As if we needed more proof that light can make or break an image… Brice is one of those guys who spends time walking the walk, and that shows in this image. The horses are loaded up, and you can tell they’re all out for a few days together.
“Argentina, January 2020
It was still dark when we saddled and packed our horses for the first day of the cattle drive. Our goal was to bring the herd of cows to the summer pastures, high in altitude. Around 8.00am, the herd was slowly moving through a thick cloud of dust when Sky, one of the gauchos, entered my camera frame as she was pulling the pack mule.
For three days we rode through the Andes Mountains, leading the herd with the help of our dogs. It felt like I was travelling through time, living a life meant to disappear.”
#7 Manu Pelissier - Golden Pillar of Spantik
The complimentary colors, the composition, and sheer scale in this photo elevate it into the alpinism hall of fame for me. I love the fact that I had never heard of the photographer either… Since I couldn’t contact Manu, I asked climber Marko Prezelj (pictured) to recount that day.
“This image was taken by Manu Pellissier in 2000 on the Golden Pillar of Spantik. It shows me on the morning of our third bivouac during the free climb of the Fowler-Saunders route. The day before, we climbed until late afternoon but couldn’t find a comfortable spot to bivouac. When route-finding in the dark became impossible, the four of us stopped for the night.
I remember squeezing into my sleeping bag with my boots still on, sitting on my backpack after removing my crampons. Several times during the night, I found myself hanging on the rope. Only in the morning did I realize how exposed the terrain was.
That day, we climbed to the summit and descended to one final bivouac before reaching base camp.”
Marko Prezelj has some serious climbing shots
#8 Jay Kolsch - Filson W23
This is one of the shots in this list that makes me seriously jealous! I wish I had it in my portfolio. The light is out of a Caspar David Friedrich painting.
“This was the last photograph I made capping off the W23 Filson campaign we shot in Montana. It was late March and it had been unusually warm. We spent the week chasing the snow and hadn’t had much luck. Production had found locations that worked for tighter needs but we still had not found that big scene setting photo for Filson’s winter roll out. All week long we searched for that big epic moment to no avail. At the end of the week we packed up the gear and checked into our flights feeling like Montana had gotten the better of us.
When I woke up the following morning and peered out the window I was shocked to see a sea of white. A random, unforcated small snow storm had pulled into the valley early that morning and coated the ground. Just what we needed. Moments later I saw the creative campaign director rushing out of his cabin headed in my direction. We all knew what he wanted. We rushed to unpack and get ready to make one last photograph. We spent 10 minutes fumbling, trying to make that photo feel sprawling and triumphant but it wasnt until we took a break to grab a ladder that the clouds started to envelope the mountains behind him. Realizing the scene finally looked complete I rushed talent back into the scene and shot the final frame.”
#9 Jeremie Villet - Chamois
I’ve spent a decent amount of time shooting with Jeremie, and his dedication to creating his ethereal work is boundless. The man spends hundreds of nights a year in the wild, just waiting for the perfect moment, and when you see the work come out, it all seems worth it.
“I had been camping for 10 days in the Jura Mountains, hoping to catch a glimpse of a lynx against the pristine snow. One day, I heard a distant lynx call and watched from my hide as a group of alert chamois formed a circle. It was a cloudy day, the kind “when the snow and sky shared the light.” With no shadows or shapes in the snow, it felt “as if the chamois were floating in empty space.”
Chamois are agile herbivores, related to goats and sheep, and native to the mountains of Europe and parts of Asia. In summer, they graze in high meadows and move down to the forested slopes in winter. The hilly forests and high pastures of the Jura Mountains provide the perfect habitat for chamois to feed and shelter, and for lynx to hunt by stealth. Chamois prefer steep open spaces where they can spot approaching danger from a distance.”
#10 Achille Mauri - Crocs x Satisfy
If you make a commercial shoot look like a stolen street photo, you have my heart. I recommend you check out the entire set on Achille’s IG because it’s a great example of how to use hired talent and mix it with passers-by.
“I shot this for the Satisfy x Crocs collab in Santorini during the off-season, sometime in April. The island, usually packed with vacationers in August, was mostly empty. However, there were quite a few nudists on the beach, which turned out to be an unexpected but amusing addition to the shoot.
Interestingly, the nudists were about the same age as our talent—around 65 to 70 years old—so I decided to incorporate them into the scene. This gave the impression they were part of the casting, but they were just random beachgoers. At one point, it even looked like one of them got naked and joined in, which worked perfectly for the vibe of the shoot.
I used an underwater housing for the camera, which is always a great tool for these shoots.”
#11 Pentti Sammallahti
Sammallahti’s book, “Me Kaksi,” which means “us two” in Finnish, is one of those books I never get tired of looking at. Highly recommend, if you can find it.
“Helsinki, Finland, 1982.
I have to push myself to go see people. I find it hard to approach them; I like to keep a certain distance... In my photographs, animals play an important role. They indicate the scale, they represent the gateway into the photograph. Sometimes I direct them; they are my actors...”
#12 Forrest Mankins
Only Forrest can make a photo of a fence interesting. He is the one person I know who can photograph the most mundane thing in the most compelling way. This Montana fence is one of his prime examples.
“I’ve been looking at this road on and off for 10 years now. I’ve seen it in the dead of winter, when the wind wanted to take the Land Cruiser door off, and I’ve seen it in August under wildfire smoke. But, with a late snow a few Junes back, I’d never seen it like this, and must have spent 30 minutes on the side of that road just looking. Photography is such a wonderful reason to notice things.”
If you haven’t already, you can grab the AS2 WILD Preset pack here — it’s on sale for a very limited time.
Thanks so much reading, and your support.
This newsletter is edited by Danny Smith
Regarding the surf photography, I tend to agree. You might like https://thomaslodin.com, he brings some poetry to it I feel like.
Also, he might be easy to meet for you as he is around the Basque Country
This newsletter has become such a cool place for all of your photography, work, and inner musings over the past 6 months. It has been really cool to be able to follow you along on this journey. Keep up the good work. 👍