The 2025 Canadian Photographer of the Year is long-time Can Geo Photo Club member Anthony Bucci of Port McNeill, B.C. Bucci was chasing waterfalls with a friend near Campbell River, B.C. when he got the news. “I couldn’t believe it,” says Bucci. “It’s still a shocker, just because I know how many people contribute to [this competition]. To be selected is truly amazing.”
Originally from Langley, B.C., Bucci spent much of his life fishing “salmon, trouts, steelhead, sturgeon… lakes, rivers, ocean, you name it.” On these fishing adventures, Bucci would see “tons of wildlife” — owls on silent wings in the bush, bears fishing on rich fall salmon runs, wolves on the upper Chilliwack River. Around 20 years ago, fishing started to get crowded, so Bucci sold his fishing equipment and bought a camera and lens. “Ironically, when I bought that stuff and I went back to all those fishing spots, I saw nothing!” he says.
But Bucci is nothing if not determined, a virtue he prides himself on. “I’ll just keep going and going and going and going, till I’m sick of going, but I’ll keep going.”
Clearly, his persistence has paid off. One of his winning shots, featured above, comes from the narrow valley of Zeballos on Vancouver Island where, during the winter, the fog rushes in and around the mountain peaks. Bucci sat there watching Rugged Mountain for hours, waiting for the perfect thickness of fog. “I’ve got to make sure everything’s perfect. If I don’t like it, I don’t take a picture,” he says. “It’s got to be special.”