Palm Beach County is replete with places to go, things to do and much to see. It is also a sunny playground that draws people and events to our shores year-round, even when much of the country shivers. All that makes our community perfect grounds for the award-winning photographers of The Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News. We took the time to recall the moments our photographers found the most compelling of 2025.
The collection celebrates names and faces we all recognize, from Tiger Woods to Sly Stallone, but also moments from daily lives, from a Catholic Mass to the sidelines of a high school football game and the swift response to a building fire.
We’ll let the photographers and their work say the rest.
Palm Beach Post photographer, Greg Lovett
My goal is always to tell a story. I want to take you there and show you what is happening. The challenge is including as many elements in the scene as possible while simultaneously capturing the moment in a pleasing composition.
That was my challenge in March when President Donald Trump came to town and I was assigned to photograph his reception as his motorcade drove past. The flags, signs and hats tell you one thing and the expressions on peoples’ faces another. To me, the photograph is a visual that helps explain the story.
Expressions were also key when I headed to a night of TGL, a new golf league Tiger Woods helped start and an event he played in that night. This indoor, high-tech league competition has a vibe that is a little more fun and casual. He was relaxed and it showed. I love his expression in this picture — you usually don’t see that expression unless he’s won a tournament. A trip to Lion Country Safari offered an equally interesting twist on a familiar scene. This baby chimp was just like a kid on Christmas morning as he tore into the packages, part of an annual gift-giving activity at the park.
While a burning vacant warehouse is never a good thing, it can be cinematic visually. In February, I was called out to a warehouse fire in West Palm Beach, off South Dixie Highway. There I was able to capture what I look for in good photography — good composition with multiple diagonal lines anchored by the ladder on the left, smoke and fire billowing to the center and crisscrossing streams of water balance the right side. The orange splash of color and silhouetted sun is just a bonus.
Best photos by Greg Lovett:
Best photos in 2025 by Palm Beach Post photographer, Thomas Cordy
These images are just plain-old unfiltered moments. Moments buried in the minute-by-minute news cycle. A moment representing hundreds of hours of planning for a comically joyous world record. A moment of a kiss between lovers. A moment for other high school athletes to show their photo-worthy athleticism on the gridiron. Humanity without filters.
Oh, and a cool dog photo, too.
Best 2025 photos by Palm Beach Daily News photographer: Meghan McCarthy
When art imitates life? McCarthy said she was excited to photograph the reception for Sylvester Stallone’s art exhibition in Palm Beach that showed several decades of his work, including several self portraits. Here, McCarthy found a moment when the artist’s self portraits frame the artist as his wife Jennifer Flavin clutches his hand. “Flavin’s hair looks like a painting.”
The island’s iconic St. Edward Catholic church, built in 1926, had the rare honor of being designated a minor basilica by the Vatican, the only one in Palm Beach County. During the celebratory Mass, I like the way the light catches the incense drifting around the alter as the retired Rev. James Finley and Bishop Gerald Barbarito prepare the Eucharist.
Best photos in 2025 by Palm Beach Daily News photographer: Damon Higgins
It’s a bit weird, but I like hanging around surfers when they get excited about nice waves. I have no clue what they’re talking about half of the time, and I’m perpetually baffled by how they’ve conditioned themselves to race out into turbulent waters that lifeguards want everyone else to avoid. “The water’s breaking over there,” they say to me. I never see it. “The ocean’s so warm,” they exclaim. Feels cold on my toes, I think to myself. But whether they are standing all smiles atop the gate at the Clarke Avenue beach entrance and deciding whether to go in, or surfing through tubes and catching air when the good waves visit us at Midtown Beach, I enjoy seeing how amped up they get and, if I had the time, I could photograph them all day.
The boy making a snow angel in his short pants and mittens just seems lost in a flurry of joy and excitement. The head of children’s library at the Society of the Four Arts, Susan Harris, said to me, “I was asked by (Four Arts donor) Mrs. Block if my wildest dreams were to come true for a special preschool event, what would it be? My response was, ‘I’d like it to snow in South Florida!’ Most preschoolers in Palm Beach County have no concept of the winter season. Many have not seen or touched snow.” Well, thanks to Susan and the Block family, a number of them were afforded the opportunity to experience snow at the Preschool Story Time Winter Wonderland a few weeks ago! Giant blocks of ice were ground into snow to create the mound.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: See the best photos in 2025 by Palm Beach Post, Daily News photographers
Reporting by Sonja Isger, Greg Lovett, Thomas Cordy, Damon Higgins and Meghan McCarthy, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
