2025 … what a year

If I look back on everything that has happened this year, I can’t believe that only 365 days have passed. What started with a trip to Sri Lanka turned into rediscovering myself and my photography style and therefore my whole entire business. I have always loved photography and all the amazing projects I had until that point, but for the first time in my life I looked at my photos and it felt like me. What followed were a bunch of styled shoots, collaborations, jobs and shooting every day. I was taking so many pictures and videos that I barely found any time to edit. I had so many ideas. So many projects I wanted to bring to life.

Three months flew by and I got back to Germany, focusing mostly on the Business Map, an education and coaching program about marketing and sales with Jai Long. And honestly, this program was hands down the best decision I made. I learned so much in such a short time, grew so much and got a better foundation to actually make this business grow. And it worked. I am not saying I have everything figured out, but everything is a lot clearer now. I started working on my new website and I wanted it to be good. I wanted to look at it, be proud of it and recognize myself in it. Getting the site up and running took me longer than I want to admit, but three months later, on July 30, it was up and running and I was happy with it.

So all these months from May till August I had different jobs all over Europe. Germany, France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands. In a few of these jobs I got to work together with other photographers and videographers. I learned and laughed so much with all of them. Honestly, feeling beyond grateful to work with all these amazing people. And it was for sure always adventurous.

I also took some time to dive a bit more into video. Photography will always be my number one, but I really enjoyed filming a highlight video for an Austrian hotel and the aftermovie for the Surfana Festival in the Netherlands with Matthias.

September came around and I was craving a bit more stability by staying at one place somewhere by the ocean. Soon after everything started falling into place again all by itself and I ended up in Portugal. I stayed at the Wild Souls Coliving house in Ericeira from the beginning of October till mid December, working on creating a photobook for them. I had always wanted to print my own coffee table book and I finally had the time and excuse to start working on it. During this process I got to meet more and more people, businesses and creatives and slowly but surely found more and more jobs as well.

So to summarize this, in one year I

• did a bunch of styled shoots

• finished the one year coaching program with Jai Long

• did a complete rebranding

• got my new website up and running

• worked in seven countries

• learned more about video

• made a lot of new connections

• made my first personalized coffee table book (this is only the first one)

• got to work with so many lovely people, brands and businesses

• made a proper goal plan for 2026

Now I really don’t want to sugarcoat anything. This year wasn’t always easy. Actually, the opposite. I probably never had so many ups and downs before as in this year. Self doubt, thoughts of quitting and getting a full time job somewhere in Germany, comparing myself, not thinking that I am good enough and a lot of change and challenges in my personal life didn’t make it always easy. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself because I really want to make this work. And even if it looks nice on social media, it isn’t always the case. I am not complaining here, but establishing yourself in a new place all over again isn’t easy either. There is uncertainty and a lot of trial and error connected with it. But all of this is part of this journey and even though some days were really hard, they made me stronger in the long run and I got to grow so much from every challenge.

Bottom line, I am really proud of myself for never giving up, for believing in myself and for my commitment to make next year even better than this one. I am also just beyond grateful that I get to live my dream. I feel really privileged and thankful to all the people who have always given me unconditional support and believed in me. I also want to say thanks to all the amazing clients who trusted me with their vision. It was a blast!

This is only the beginning. Lots of exciting projects coming. Stay tuned!