Orange County Register’s 2025 pictures of the year

Our photographers have spent the year capturing moments big and small from one end of the county to the other. Here are some moments that brought smiles to our faces and images that left us in awe.

Children react as they get sprayed with bubbles during Melody Yang’s Bubblefest performance at the Discovery Cube Orange in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Three-year-old Ridge Kohlenberger gives Haines an encouraging kiss during the dog’s first day of work greeting patients at Rady Children’s Hospital in Mission Viejo on Monday, November 17, 2025. Ridge’s mother is a certified child-life manager in charge of reducing patient stress and anxiety. Haines is the hospital’s first full-time resident dog to help with this mission, although other Rady hospitals in the area have also started the program. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Helen Beary, left, Mikaela Brennan, center, and Sophia Lattanzio falling into the campus pool during the Senior Plunge at JSerra Catholic High School backwards in San Juan Capistrano, CA, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. The wet tradition, which started as a prank in 2009, has seniors running out of the senior’s awards ceremony and jumping in the campus pool while still wearing their school uniform. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Erika Armenta, widow of Noe Rodriguez, embraces her daughters next to the location where Rodriguez died, during a vigil to honor the life of Noe Rodriguez on the first anniversary of his death in Santa Ana on Monday, December 1, 2025. Rodriquez, who was carrying a replica gun resembling a shotgun, was shot and killed by the Santa Ana Police. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Visitors at âThe Shroud of Turin: An Immersive Experienceâ watch...

Visitors at “The Shroud of Turin: An Immersive Experience” watch the presentation in the “Immersive Life of Jesus” room at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. The 10,000-square-foot exhibit is a look at the story of Jesus and the burial cloth. The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the faint image of a crucified man, which is believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

NEWPORT BEACH, CA – NOV 4, 2025: The moon rises over Saddleback, Santiago and Modjeska peaks, as boats fill Newport Harbor.
In the 1930s, dredging work commenced, and artificial islands such as Balboa Island and Lido Isle were created. With approximately 9,000 boats, Newport Harbor is one of the largest recreational boat harbors on the West Coast. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Huntington Beach Fire Department Captain Rex Rysewyk, left, laughs along with Lois Rufus, 102 years old, after she hand-cranked the siren following a ride in Huntington Beach’s first motorized fire engine, built in 1922, in Huntington Beach on Thursday, July 17, 2025. Rysewyk drove Rufus around the parking lot in the restored vintage Seagrave engine. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Harper Forsting, 6, and her sister Josephine Forsting, 4, with their grandmother, Elaine Reames, reach out to an animatronic dinosaur as they visit the Outlets at San Clemente in San Clemente, CA, on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. The dinos started out as “Jurassic Beach” at the Carlsbad State Parks campground, but with the Jurassic movie released this month, they were commissioned by the outlet center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Anita Bajpai hugs her husband, Brett Peterson, after discovering on Saturday, January 11, 2025, that her 1940s-era childhood home survived the Pacific Palisades fires. Maps indicated it was in the fire zone but only a garage apartment in the back was destroyed. Bajpai’s mother, who is safe, lives there now. The couple are from Orange County. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Thousands of structures sit in ruins in Altadena, CA, on Sunday, January 19, 2025. The Eaton Fire, fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds, ripped through beginning on the evening of January 7. Fires across Los Angeles County have left at east 27 dead and over 180,000 people under evacuation orders. Over 12,000 structures, many of them homes and businesses, burned in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Check out the photos and follow The Orange County Register on Facebook and Instagram. Here are the individual pages of our staff photographers: Paul Bersebach, Jeff Gritchen, Jeff Gritchen’s Aerial Images, Leonard Ortiz, and Mindy Schauer.

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