2025 was quite a year in tech and the camera industry! Nikon launched their new compact cinema line to complete with the likes of Sony FX3 and the Canon C50. The Nikon ZR was introduced as their first compact cinema camera that came in at only $2,200! It's such great value that I saw many videographers and YouTubers switch over to Nikon. I think that was Nikon's goal with the ZR, and it paid off. People are raving about this camera's features and RED tech for the price.

AI has only improved since it was introduced to the masses over two years ago. Many companies have incorporated AI from other providers into their products. For example, Adobe started using Google's Nano Banana for image generation this year. Artlist began using Kling for high-quality text-to-video generation. Mercedes-Benz integrated Google Cloud's conversational AI tech into their vehicles to assist drivers with questions about their vehicle or driving experience.

The 2025 Tesla Model Y went through a complete design refresh and it’s the most radical design change that Tesla has done to any of their vehicles so far. It features a redesigned interior and exterior with new additions like ambient lighting, ventilated seats, and a reimagined dashboard. Tesla launched their Robotaxi service in Austin in June, followed by San Francisco with a monitoring person inside. Now they're removing the monitors, bringing them one step closer to full autonomy. They also launched Version 14 of their FSD, which Elon Musk described as a more "sentient" or human-like automated driving experience. After riding in my friend Andy Juniper's Model Y, I can say that v14 is their best yet and feels much more human-like.

Difficult Moments Of The Year

Starting with the most difficult moment of this year by far: I had the worst wedding experience with a client. I photographed their engagement session and civil ceremony, which went great—no complaints at all. But the wedding reception was a completely different story. Things started going downhill two days before when the groom asked if I do videography. First, that's outside my scope of work. I don't offer videography for clients at the moment. Second, they asked because they'd decided to add videography last minute and couldn't secure an available videographer, which was their fault. The bride and groom didn't even bother to check if we'd eaten. That was literally the first wedding where they never checked in with me or my assistant about food. We barely had time to eat because the groom's dad created a situation where I had to be taking photos constantly. I couldn't even be on my phone during downtime, which the groom criticized me for when he pulled me aside. It was like a switch completely flipped during the reception. I hope nobody goes through a situation like this.

I got into a deer accident on a highway in Laguna Beach, California that would have cost me $11,657.91 out of pocket. Luckily, I have Tesla Insurance, so I only had to pay a $1,000 deductible. I was able to use $977.00 of my Tesla credit, so I ended up paying just $23.00 for a new front bumper, headlight, fender, and windshield. Thank you to everyone who used my Tesla referral code to purchase their new Tesla—your contribution saved me in situations like this, and I'm truly grateful for that. You can still use my referral code: https://www.tesla.com/referral/makito519893

I had to say goodbye for now to my good friend Beny, who had to return to Canada after staying in the U.S. for over a year. Even though LA isn't in the cards for him in the foreseeable future, he's killing it with his music and 3D VFX work back in Canada. Follow him on IG! and check out these photos from Beny's farewell party at Bagel Exchange: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFLsIxATFxM/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Highlights Of The Year

Now, let's highlight some moments from 2025! At the beginning of this year, I had the opportunity to take some photos for pianist Ai Kuwabara’s upcoming music album in the Joshua Tree area. The photos were used for her album cover as well as the jacket inside the album. I also helped out my friend Yohei shoot Ai’s music video as my camera was used as a video b-cam. So grateful for Yohei and Ai for having me on board for this wonderful project. You can check out the video that Yohei made for Ai Kuwabara’s Flying? song HERE.

I started investing this year. I kept putting it off, waiting for the right time but honestly, there's never a perfect moment. The best time to start is now. So I began investing in stocks and High Yield Savings Accounts. Early this year, I was thinking about ways to increase my income, and one of the best strategies is letting your money grow. There are tons of resources out there for investments, but Reddit has been incredibly helpful since I had minimal knowledge about which stocks to invest in. Shoutout to the investment community on Reddit! Sign up for Robinhood my preferred stock & investment platform of choice and invest in your first stock free: https://join.robinhood.com/makitou-81280b

I attended my very first influencer event with my friend Grace. It was the reveal of Jeep’s upcoming Recon EV and it was such an epic experience as we explored all 5 terrains in which the Jeep was capable of traversing. I started a new series on YouTube called “Things I Bought This Month” showcasing some of my favorite products that I bought each month. I attended the grand opening of the Tesla Diner in Hollywood with my friends Andy and Grace and we waited 6 hours! In the end it was well worth it because it was unlike any other thing that I’ve ever seen before. The futuristic Jetson’s inspired aesthetic with Optimus serving us popcorn, and limited edition Tesla Diner merch made this an unforgettable experience. You can check out the full vlog HERE.

My Travels This Year

In terms of traveling, I had the opportunity to visit three new countries this year: Hong Kong, China, and Singapore. If you had asked me if I had any interest to visit China 3 years ago, I would have told you no. But after seeing reels about China and how futuristic and beautiful it is, I was convinced and I needed to experience it for myself. I will say that I’ve never felt this nervous when I arrived at an airport when I arrived in China. Immigration officers were not that friendly and they took my passport for over 20 minutes reveiwing everything. After about 30 minutes, they finally gave me back my passport and I was in! I was so relieved and I finally got a chance to explore Chongqing the famous cyberpunk city. I took my favorite photo this year in Chongqing and I couldn’t be anymore happier about it. China is truly different from the way western media portrays it and you really have to experience it before you truly understand it. There were so many photospots in Chongqing that we couldn’t even go to all of them even though we had 9 days. If you love spicy food then Chongqing is where it’s at! The other two countries Hong Kong and Singapore are countries that I’ve been wanting to go to for years and I’m so happy that I finally got to explore each country. I haven’t done a collab portrait shoot in a while so it was fun collaborating with my Djoan in Hong Kong. It’s also my first time spending new years in a different country. The main reason why I wanted to spend New Years in Singapore is to catch the annual New Years firework show. Check out this IG reel that I made for the New Years firework show in Singapore.

I got to experience cherry blossom season for the second time in my life this year in Japan. Last year I was too early and this year I was a little bit late but I was able to catch a bit of the peak of it when I went to Saitama. That photo and location landed in my top 5. I took the most spontaneous trip in life with my friends Alison and Eva to Vancouver. We’ve been talking about it for a few months, but some things had to really align for all 3 of our schedules in order to make it work. Basically after I got the confirmation that I was able to pick up my car from the repair shop a few days earlier, we immediately started looking for flights to Vancouver. We ended up booking our flights, 4 days before! I’ve never done that for an international trip and I don’t think I’ll ever do that again. It was my second time there and I had an awesome time trying to capture the autumn colors and eating some delicious Canadian cuisine (which all of them hit by the way!).

I was able to check off one of my photography bucket list goals when I was able to photograph snow in the city. It’s always been a dream of mine to capture a moment like this since we don’t get snow in Los Angeles. It was one of the first snowfall of the season in Toronto and I couldn’t be any more happier on how these photos turned out. I got to take portraits of my friend Beny and Angela and also got some snowliage shots as well!

I flew the most this year than any other year with 17 flights with 6 of them being long haul flights. I flew a total of 43,082 miles which equates to 4 days and 3 hours of flight time. It’s also the first time that I started tracking all of my flights with Flightly.

My Client Shoots Of This Year

I completed a total of 65 client shoots this year which is down from last year. I wish I was able to pull in more client shoots this year, but I did focus quite a bit on my YouTube channel too. I’m still trying to find the right balance between client shoots and YouTube. It’s definitely a challenge! Out of those 65 client shoots, 1 of them found me through ChatGPT which was really surprising! Across all of my client shoots, I photographed 83,291 photos which equated to about 173 hours of actual shooting! I took 28,231 travel and collab photos, bringing the total to be around 111,522 photos I took for 2025. I traveled 3,397 miles total to my clients shoots this year.

I completed two international client photoshoots this year (same amount as last year). The first took place in Japan during cherry blossom season, and the second was in Toronto. The first international client shoot was a proposal for a Canadian couple that was visiting Japan. We decided to shoot the proposal at Tenkuu no Torii where you can see Mt. Fuji in the background. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see Mt Fuji in the morning of the shoot because it was completely clouded over but we got some amazing photos to commemorate this special moment in the couple’s lives. You can view photos from this beautiful proposal session in this blog post.

The second international client shoot was for my good friend Junya’s wedding. He specifically wanted me to be the photographer to document his special day and I couldn’t be any more happier to capture this moment for him and Emi. This was hands down the best wedding that I’ve ever photographed so far. The couple portraits were some of the best that I’ve ever photographed, all of the venues that we photographed in looked aesthetically pleasing, food was the best that I’ve ever had at a wedding, and the alcohol drinks were so phenomeonal that I drank 4 of them! I wrote a blog post on Junya & Emi’s wedding so if you want to view more photos from their special day check them out here: https://www.makitoumekita.com/blog/elegant-mildreds-temple-kitchen-wedding-in-toronto-ontari

For my photography work, grad portraits made up the bulk of my income with 27 shoots, followed by weddings (11), events (10), and proposals (5), bringing the total to 66 client shoots for the year. I started making cinematic reels this year and I created 39 pieces of short-form content (down from last year's 47) and produced 12 YouTube videos. I really want to lock in and create more long form video content in 2026. You can find my photography work on Instagram Reels my tech, home, and Tesla content on TikTok, and my everyday slice of life vlogs, travel vlogs, and tech reviews on my YouTube.

Content-wise, I wrote 14 blog posts this year, down from 22 last year. Even though AI and Google Search’s algorithm have made it hard for a lot of blogs to gain traction, it still doesn’t make it less important that it was before the changes took place. People will still go to blogs, if the content is rich and provides more value than AI responses and I will still keep on blogging as long as I have my photography business up and running.

Click here to see last year’s top 5 photos & year in review.

Here are my top 5 favorite photos that I’ve taken this year.

Note: These photos are not based on Instagram statistics; instead these are ranked based on personal preference. Although I loved every photoshoot I did this year, these are the ones that I would like to highlight. It was very difficult for me to choose which five photos I would include in this post as there were so many good ones to choose from.

#5 Beny’s Farewell

Starting the list with this stunning futuristic portrait of my friend Beny singing his heart out during his final performance in Los Angeles. When I entered Bagel Exchange, I didn't know what to expect. He went all out with studio lights and a fog machine. The result captured someone giving their all with pure heart and emotion. I loved how these portraits turned out and the editing process equally. There was so much color to work with! I could have created five uniquely different edits, but I settled on this one, which strikes the perfect balance between warm and cool tones. I also love the retro synthwave vibe with the lights reflected in Beny's glasses. It was the perfect way for Beny to cap off a fantastic two-year stay in Los Angeles.

#4 The Sun Sets Over Hong Kong

I don't know what it is about sunsets in Asia, but they hit different than in the United States. I'm guessing the haze and pollution in the air emphasize the sun's shape as it descends on the horizon. I love how part of the haze covered the bottom portion of the sun, something you don't really see in Los Angeles. The compression of my 70-200mm emphasized the sun's ball shape even more, making this photo one of my favorite shots of the year. Despite my friend Deiner and me waiting an hour and a half to hail a taxi (more on that story in this Threads I posted), it was such a memorable experience from my first trip to Hong Kong that I'll never forget.

#3 In The Midst of Nothing But Cherry Blossoms

This is one of those locations I've saved for years, but timing it was quite tricky. I arrived toward the tail end of sakura season in Japan. Most cherry blossoms in Tokyo had already started to fall, and there wasn't much left. However, I remembered someone telling me that Saitama is beautiful for cherry blossoms and it's a bit further west of Tokyo, so I decided to take the risk and make the 1.5-hour train ride. Right when I got off the train, I saw cherry blossoms at their peak which was a promising sign. Once I reached my destination at Motoara River Cherry Blossom Avenue, my jaw dropped. Cherry blossoms surrounded me, and petals were dropping into the river like a scene straight out of an anime. Since this spot is far from Tokyo, there were hardly any tourists. It was mostly locals enjoying the sakura. This was definitely an all-time highlight of my Japan trip.

#2 Toward The Future

If you asked me what my top 5 must-visit photography locations in Japan are, this is one of them. I spent hours trying to find this spot until I came across a thread where someone posted a Google Maps link to a nearby landmark. I took a chance and booked a hotel in Shizuoka. This location is closer to the countryside, so a car is recommended. It was perfect because I had to rent a car anyway to get to Yamanashi for my client's proposal shoot. The weather wasn't looking good. The only time Mt. Fuji wasn't clouded over was my last full day in Shizuoka during sunset, and even then it was only a 50% chance I'd see it. That was my only opportunity to check out the spot, so I made the trek. Once I got there, I waited patiently for a few minutes and the clouds started to disappear, revealing Mt. Fuji in the background! Then I had to wait a few more minutes for the shinkansen to pass through. I captured several shots incorporating the purple flowers blooming in the area with the train passing through, as well as a cinematic video of me with two shinkansens passing in the background. I love photo locations like these that only the locals know, with no tourists.

#1 Into The Dragon’s Lair

Would you believe me if I told you this photo was taken at a jewelry shop in China? I couldn't believe it either until I found it on Instagram. After seeing a photo of this spot from another photographer, I immediately envisioned the shot I wanted to capture. Finding the right timing was tricky—since this is a jewelry shop, people were constantly coming in and out. Once we found an opening, my friend Deiner started taking photos of me with the tube light. Most people photograph from the front of the store right when you enter, but the composition looks far better from the opposite direction, inside the store looking outward. The smoke added a perfect touch to the overall image, and I absolutely loved how this photo turned out. I still remember my reaction when Deiner showed me the photo through my camera. I was elated!

For those curious, here are my top 10 favorite songs of 2025 (ranked):

Dayseeker - Crawl Back Into My Coffin
Sleep Token - Gethsemane
Bilmuri - HARD2TELL
keshi - WANTCHU (HTOWN REMIX)
Julia Wolf - Girls
Sleep Token - Damocles
Volumes - Dreams
PhaseOne - SHADOWS (ft. Scro)
Julia Wolf - FYP
boylife - Baby Chop (ft. No Rome & keshi)

Here are some of my favorite restaurants and cafes that I tried for the first time this year:

Yardbird (the fried rice really blew my mind)
PAI (best thai food I’ver ever had)
pizza marumo (best pizza that I’ve ever had)
Sawayaka (hamburg steak was to die for, went twice bc it was so good)
Pizzeria Badiali (2nd best pizza that I’ve ever had)
Antoyo KBBQ (best kbbq in NY that I’ve tried)
Chubby Cattle
Modern China Tea Shop (best boba in China)
Hot Star Fried Chicken
Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura
Hancho Cha Cha (best glizzes that I’ve ever had)
Wagaya
Luckin Coffee
HEYTEA
Shabukore
Big JJ Seafood Hotpot
Pangge Noodle Restaurant (Baixiang)
Shanhua Nijiangjjing Afternoon Tea BBQ Bar
Underpass Yihao Air-raid Shelter
Hai Chi Em Modern Cuisine
The Gray Olive Restaurant
Old Xian’s Noodle House
O’Love Greek Kitchen
Bee’s House
Slo Coffee
Coffee Monster
Torrance Yokocho
Cafe de Mama
Damsot
Upper Cafe
Han Yang Restaurant
China Bistro
Sundazed Matcha
Silk Tea
SHARI SHARI Kakigori House
Han Yang Restaurant
Wagyu Factory
Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop
Tobias Burger Restaurant
Shawarma Restaurant
dotcom space Tokyo
Gokago Kyoto
Menya Inoichi Hanare
Asakara Good Store
Tempura Makino (best tempura I’ve ever had)
Kushiyaki Kobe beef (best Kobe beef I’ve ever had)
Honcho Cha Cha
Yuan Mahon Bei Bu
Mountain House
Ruru Shibuya
Mastsubayasaryo (best Hojicha Latte that I’ve ever had )
Micasadeco & Cafe Jingumae
Angel’s Tijuana Tacos
Owakudani Valley Cafe

Here are my top 10 shows and anime I’ve watched in 2025 (ranked):

Bleach: TYBW (the best first episode of a returning season for an anime, literally at the edge of my seat for almost every episode)
Fallout (this made me a huge fan of the franchise)
Last Samurai Standing (one of the best Japanese shows that have come out recently)
The Summer That Hikaru Died (one of the best horror animes that I’ver ever seen)
Sakamoto Days
Sean Combs: The Reckoning
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
American Murder: Gaby Petito
Alice In Borderland S3
Mercy For None

Here are my top 10 favorite photo locations I’ve photographed for the first time in my life this year (ranked):

Shingashi Riverbank Cherry Blossoms
Fujioka Minami, Shizuoka, Japan
Victoria Peak
Kowloon Peak Viewing Point
Ciqikou Ancient Town
Hongyadong Cave
Haitangxi Station
Enoshima Beach
Alouette Lake
Quarry Bay

I hope you enjoyed this year-in-review and my top five photos of the year! If you’d like the visual version, be sure to check out my 2025 Year in Review Vlog on YouTube.

I can’t thank you enough for the incredible love and support you’ve shown me this year. It truly means the world to me. I’m deeply humbled and grateful to be able to do what I love for a living, and none of it would be possible without you. Let’s keep going strong in 2026!