2025 Review

Another year of creating images through the lenses of SAM LAW

At the start of 2025, things seemed promising, but as the year pushed on and on, things felt harder and tougher. Pushing to capture and create became an uphill battle, with seemingly less support and fewer eyes on what we do. The days where it feels like there isn’t rhyme or reason to pick up the cameras, slap on a lens and show the world how I see things are growing, unfortunately.

Putting this together and taking a look through the images I’ve been able to create and capture, however, serves as a great reminder of what we’re capable of doing, and hopefully showcasing to potential clients, customers and friends that we’re here, we’re persisting in getting out and about to a variety of events, and to book me.In 2025, I covered just over 60 events, 7 of those outside of Sydney; 5 of those were interstate (VIC, SA & TAS). As I continue to embrace my Medium (Large) Format Fuji cameras, I’m slowing down on images shot - 39,304 for the year. We edited & published about 20% of those to paying clients, Facebook Albums, Instagram Posts, Reels or Stories. The ‘fight’ with content creators for eyes and the evolving ways of imagery is hard won.

So here’s 2 images per month that highlight something in the month, or have a nice story to tell. I spent way too much time culling images out of these collections after setting a hard limitation of 80 total images (24 featured and 56 “cutting room floor” images - 528 in total). This meant that I’ve had to ‘discard’ 925 of the 1453 images that spoke to me as I looked through the years worth of photos taken.

Thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout the year, especially clients and customers, along with the shares, comments and likes. Every little bit helps as a freelance photographer, and it's a privilege to be able to get out and #SNIPE as much as I do.

01 - January🔗

Just a couple of events in January.

North Shore Sporting Car Club run Donningtons AutoBrunch on the first Sunday of every month. There is always a great variety and mix of cars that turn up, plenty of regulars and the odd surprise every once in a while. This Mitsubishi Evo VI was sitting pretty with the sun perched perfectly over the rear spoiler with some cool Tommi decals underneath.

After the huge success of LZ World Tour in 2023, the team from Keep It Reet put on Drift Fest in an attempt to do the same thing. They brought over several drivers and international drift personalities over the Australia Day Long Weekend with Ben Jenkinz (NZ), Dave Egan (IRE), Daigo Saito (JAP), HERT (USA), Jack Shanahan (IRE), Chris Forsberg (USA) and Jarod DeAnda (USA). Throw in some of Australia’s best drifters, crazy builds, team drift trains, Freestyle Motor Cross and musical acts and you have the makings of something that should draw the crowds. Unfortunately the masses didn’t turn up. Maybe it was too last minute, maybe it was because of the long weekend, but either way, the driving over the weekend was pretty great.This shot of PS160 - The Quad Turbo Monster through the catch fence as it lit up a set of tyres was something that caught my eye when selecting images.

Cutting Room Floor - AutoBrunch & Drift Fest.

02 - February🔗

Not too much more in February, still kept things low-key before we ran into a pretty epic March.

A second month on duty #SNIPING AutoBrunch, and we saw one of those odd surprises turn up in this old early 1900s Bentley with the hood popped showing off her engine.

A stupidly hot February day for the latest iteration of Hot Import Nights Australia’s Most Wanted saw plenty of cars gathered on the rooftop of Castle Towers. I don’t think I got to edit and publish this set. This slammed Cadillac sat perfectly with the red popping against the blue sky, white clouds and mirrored crosswalk.

Cutting Room Floor - AutoBrunch, Hot Import Nights Most Wanted, Duck & Whale Annual.

03 - March🔗

March was a busy month of #SNIPING. I got over to Adelaide for a couple of weekends in March for Adelaide Motorsport Festival the first weekend and Drift Collective (Round 01) & Drifting SA State Series (Round 01), spending the week working out of our Adelaide office.

One of the features of Adelaide Motorsport Festival is the Friday night Gouger Street Party where some of the hero cars cruise through the city streets. They say Adelaide is the ‘City of Churches’, so I had to take the opportunity and catch at least one of the cars driving by a church, and this Can-Am Shadow was the best of the bunch.

The first round of Drift Collective - a 3 round collaborative drift competition across 3 states by DriftingSA, Drift League and Keep It Reet kicked off to a 40+ degree day at The Bend. One of the things we love about the purpose built drift track is that the return road feeds straight past the spectator wall, giving opportunities like this, for the spectators to interact with drivers.

Cutting Room Floor - MD Autotech Birthday, Beat The Blue Launch, Adelaide Motorsport Festival, Gouger Street Party, Drift Collective Round 01, DriftingSA State Series Round 01, Historic Nights.

04 - April🔗

A quieter month in April, but we booked Nissan Datsun Nationals coverage on Easter Sunday.

It was kind of odd to shoot Auto Live at Castle Towers carpark just 2 months after Hot Import Nights was there. Hard not to compare show for show, and this one was sparse on numbers. Still, we caught this pretty cool image of an 83 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with spectators enjoying the view.

Nissan Datsun Nationals 2025 saw a host of Datsuns and Nissans gather in Sydney over the Easter Weekend with meets, cruises finishing up with a host of activities at Sydney Motorsport Park with Track Day, Figure 8, Show n Shine and twilight Roll Racing. Catching this Z on track just as it disappears behind the shrubs on the outside of turn 5 is a favourite, and a shot we love to pursue whenever we get the chance.

Cutting Room Floor - Sundown Drive-Ins, AutoLive, Nissan Datsun Nationals.

05 - May🔗

May was pretty jam packed with a couple of race meetings sandwiching a Tasmania trip for Drift Collective Round 02 and VW Nationals (which I felt like absolute rubbish for….).

I’ve been toying with this shot for a while, so when we finally hit a few of them, it is definitely something to highlight!! It’s still not 100% tack sharp, but with a limited focus window, through a fence at around the cars top speed for the circuit, we’ll take it.

There’s so many images from Drift Collective Round 02 that could be posted, and it was really hard getting down to this, but we really like how it’s a bit of a different perspective. It lends itself to a ‘land of the rising sun’ motif, which ties in to driftings origins and the Katakana in the Drift League logo. More Drift Collective images on the cutting room floor.

Cutting Room Floor - Shannons SpeedSeries, Drift Collective (Round 02), VW Nationals, HiTec SuperSeries.

06 - June🔗

Another busy month with events both on and off the track.

The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) runs a few track events each year. Their classic in June is a great one to get to and covers a nice range of historic vehicles that you won’t really get the opportunity to see on track very often. This is a 1973 Mawer Formula Ford sitting pretty on the dummy grid before heading out for some laps.

Since Sergio has taken on the marketing role at EuroWerke, I’ve been getting along to some of their meets; the man certainly knows how to draw a crowd!!! They celebrated their 15th Anniversary in style at The Vicar in Dural with 420+ cars turning up, and some being turned away sheerly due to capacity. The venue allowed them to hide a bunch of cars throughout, like this McLaren P14. They were so well hidden that even I wasn’t able to #SNIPE them all!!

Cutting Room Floor - HSRCA Sydney Classic, My Sisters Birthday, DrivingSports GP Drift n Drive Night, EuroWerke 15th Anniversary, NSW Motor Race Championship (Round 03), Eastern Classic.

07 - July🔗

Another busy month with a couple of Drift competitions and a few meets.

The 3rd and final round of Drift Collective landed me at Calder Park in Melbourne, where they crowned the first champion - Matt Harvey. It was a big commitment for drivers, teams, organisers and media to do all 3 rounds, but it was good to see a decent number participate in all 3 rounds. I had intended to pick up a few drivers for media coverage across the series, but was left with breadcrumbs for the most part, despite some advertising via reels. It really is quite difficult when you’re not local to any of the states. This shot of Sam Mudges' S13 throwing a nice big flame through the bonnet on his way back out through spectator lane was awesome to see and #SNIPE.

The guys at Motor Marvel have been putting on a few community events, so when their Cars & Coffee 3.0 popped up at AutoHaus Hamilton, with the Benzin Carry slinging coffees, there was little reason not to head on out to support. The space around AutoHaus quickly filled up with plenty of Porsches and more, but catching Quang’s yellow GT4RS and Cindy’s Yellow 1973 Targa together was a nice tip to plenty of Porsche meets worldwide where they define sections by colours, and Porsche do have some of the wildest and most beautiful colours of any manufacturer. (It was really hard not to select the RWB Porsche that was once owned by Cody Walker).

Cutting Room Floor - Keep It Reet Friday Night Drifts, Drift Collective (Round 03), Australian Drift Club SuperDrift (Round 02), MotorMarvel Cars & Coffee 3.0 x AutohausHamilton, Newcastle All Japan Day, Historic Nights.

08 - August🔗

Again, plenty of things to see and #SNIPE in August!!! With WTAC coming up at the start of September, it was a great opportunity to get my backside trackside to help push my eye back into a Motorsport frame of mind.

The boys from Donut Garage threw a slightly belated Birthday Party, which still saw plenty of crowds turn up, despite the weather, which got semi-torrential at one point (where I happened to be outside with camera in hand…..) I absolutely love this shot of their hand-painted logo on the wall with some shrubbery in the foreground and hints of rain falling from the sky.

I took a morning off work to head to the track in preparation for WTAC. There were a few teams out testing, but this shot of the GWR AMG GTR with a Rooster Tail down the main straight is something we love.

Cutting Room Floor - Unmarked Underground, Donut Garage 1st Birthday, Beat The Blue, Unmarked - Days 01 & 02, Driving Solutions Race Cars Track Day, Contact Patch Solutions.

09 - September🔗

September brought the madness of World Time Attack Challenge which was a crazy 3 and a half days. Throw in a few other events on and off the track and September was still on the busy side.

This year I was freelancing for myself and picked up a few clients. A lot of people say that it was a great WTAC, but I felt a bit off. I don’t know if it was the pressure of having to perform for clients, whether it’s the rise of Content Creators and collabs etc, but with everyone competing for views, it feels like the soul of things is a little lacking. This low shutter pan of Xtreme GTR down Brabham Straight, through the crowds on Pit Roof was one of the many stand out images from the madness.

Just before WTAC I made the bold choice to purchase a new lens as well, the FujiFilm GF 250mm F/4 R LM OIS WR. I didn’t get a huge chance to put it through it’s paces during WTAC, since we were pretty run and gun the whole event, so I took it out for some cool detail shots at the Porsche Club NSW Concours d’Elegance. This was through another Porsches window, and manages to bring a reflection of the fencing behind and chair into the frame.

Cutting Room Floor - World Time Attack Challenge Media Launch, World Time Attack Challenge Event, Porsche Club NSW Concours d’Elegance, Sundown Drive In v3, NSW Motor Race Championship (Round 05), Australian Drift Club South Circuit Drift Festival, Distinguished Gentlemans Drive - Sydney Flagship

10 - October🔗

A little bit of a quieter October, not too trackside, but plenty of Cars & Coffee meets taking place.

This one was pretty cheeky. Love the colour of this Escort that showed up at AutoBrunch, and there was a perfect chance to grab this #SNIPE of a girl in short shorts reflected in the door.

Another out there #SNIPE, this one from another EuroWerke meet at WaterView in Bicentennial Park. The mirroring of colours on the bollards with the decals on the car.

Cutting Room Floor - AutoBrunch, Toymods ToyotaFest 22, EuroWerke x WaterView, Tuna & Friends, DrivingSports & Tuned, NSW Supra Club at Benzin.

11 - November🔗

A little bit of local travel throughout November.

A year later, we came back to Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan for Revolution Motorsport Rev GP Vol 2. The boys at Revolution have been building a great relationship with the team at the track. For Rev GP Vol 2, the track layout was set up in such a way that spectators were really nice and close to the action, being essentially in the middle of the track (as some sections were cold / blocked off). I caught this kid sitting inside a tyre mimicking the drivers as they barrel down the hill, complete with H-Pattern gear shifting. It could be my favourite of the year.

We do love golden hour, and Historic Nights is the perfect setting to capture cars, bikes and people basking in the setting sun’s light. This Suzuki was sitting with a bunch of other bikes, and the GF 250 picked up the colours, with some nice bokeh as we shot through a metal fence and some bollards in the foreground.

Cutting Room Floor - Revolution Motorsport Rev GP Vol 2, Unmarked Underground Vol 4, Alt Gruppe Vol 10, Historic Nights.

12 - December🔗

A quieter December for me. The tail end of November and start of December were horrific at my day job, with everyone wanting everything pre-Christmas and end of year, which was just exhausting, and left nothing in the tank to go out and #SNIPE.

The ClubITR Annual has found a nice home at Benzin, so it’s a no-brainer to go and #SNIPE it. This DC2 Type R was in early, on the grass with a nice peek-a-boo under the rear bar.

The guys at Alt Gruppe were a bit quieter this year, with only 2 meets, but the sneaky last minute Christmas meetup at Rozelle Tramsheds didn’t disappoint. We kicked off with this cracker of an image with the sun shining down and a sneaky #SNIPE through the bushes of Doug’s beauty.

Cutting Room Floor - ClubITR Annual, Alt Gruppe Vol 11, Christmas Day, Underworld at Carriageworks (shot on iPhone)

If you've gotten this far, then congrats!!! It's the end of my ramblings!!!!
Again, thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout the year, especially clients and customers, along with the shares, comments and likes. Every little bit helps as a freelance photographer, and it's a privilege to be able to get out and #SNIPE as much as I do.