Photo of the Day

Essential people

2026-06-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

Stanley Medford, 10, reads a book he chose during the second year of Book Bridge at Washington Elementary School. The program is led by Sara Torbett, media specialist at Washington, and hosts three book giveaway events during the summer to put books in the hands of students and maintain a connection between students and their school community. The program is supported by grant funding by the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation.

Torbett is one of the essential people who hold everything important together in this world. She would roll her eyes if she read that, but it's true. The most important people in this world are not the rich or powerful, but instead they are, among so many others, the school librarians who create joy and community for kids in their schools.

Penny for your thoughts

2026-06-04T23:12:00.000-05:00

David Patty, president of Northwest Technical Institute, speaks during a celebration for the school's 50th anniversary in Springdale. Administrators, staff, students and visitors were treated to breakfast before viewing items to be placed into a time capsule to be opened in 25 years.

Into the time capsule went a U.S. penny since the penny is now officially extinct. That's something that I can't believe. As a kid, I collected pennies in a cigar box as I saved for toys that I wanted. To think that when this time capsule is opened, it will have been a quarter century since a penny had been minted is shocking.

So much fun

2026-06-03T23:45:00.000-05:00

Hunter Jones, 6, (center) of Prairie Grove laughs while playing in mounds of foam during a magic show and foam party at the Lincoln Public Library. The library hosted Acosta as part of its Wednesday summer reading programming.

This was a blast and totally worth the soggy shoes.

Bibbity bobbity BOO

2026-06-01T23:41:00.000-05:00

Ella Grissom of Fayetteville, dressed as a princess for NWA Princess Parties, reads a story to children during a kickoff celebration for the Farmington Public Library's summer reading program at the library's newly opened outdoor space in Farmington. The event featured performers, balloon animals, a bounce house and games.

This crowd of girls would have followed Grissom through hell and back.

The big apple

2026-05-21T23:43:00.000-05:00

Workers with Fun Time Shows in Doniphan, Mo., polish an apple-themed ride while setting up for a spring carnival at Parsons Stadium in Springdale. The carnival is open on weekdays 5-10 p.m. and weekends 5-11 p.m. through May 31. The carnival plans early start times for the holiday weekend, opening at noon through Monday with arm bands available.

These cracked me up.

Dread

2026-05-20T23:44:00.000-05:00

Fayetteville's Matti Moore clears a hurdle while competing in the 100-meter hurdle portion of the heptathlon during first day of the state decathlon and heptathlon at Har-Ber High School in Springdale.

As much as I love track, I dread this event every year. The field of athletes is excessive and they don't have event numbers or bibs to give you a chance to figure out how to identify the athletes. Making it even more difficult, the top athletes sit between events for hours as they wait to compete.

Umbrella or no umbrella?

2026-05-18T23:07:00.000-05:00

Brett Mattison, president and chief operating officer of Southwestern Electric Power Company, speaks during a ceremony to announce SWEPCO as a corporate sponsor of the first cohort of Land of Opportunity Scholars inside the Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence at the university in Fayetteville. The scholarships support students from Arkansas who qualify for Pell Grants by covering expenses that aren't met by the grants or other means of support.

Rain clouds were hanging over the city, but the middle schoolers who run the iPhone weather app said that it wasn't going to rain so I didn't bring an umbrella with me as I walked to campus. Big mistake. Luckily the rain that fell on the way back to the newsroom wasn't very strong and I didn't get that wet.

Nolan

2026-05-13T23:40:00.000-05:00

Josh Lainfiesta (left), director of the Yvonne Richardson Community Center, speaks during a tour and class organized by the University of Arkansas Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the center in Fayetteville. Participants learned about the mission of and recent improvements to the center before touring the facility and enjoying lunch prepared in the center's teaching kitchen.

The YRCC was named after Yvonne Richardson, daughter of Nolan Richardson, who passed away during the 1980s as Nolan was starting his career as basketball coach at the University of Arkansas. It makes me so happy to see this center be revitalized to keep her memory alive.

Artosphere

2026-05-12T23:34:00.001-05:00

Abigail Robinson, 5, of Fayetteville jumps onto a spot of light projected by Australian artist and performer Stephen Noonan during a performance of "the Boy and the Ball" at the Fayetteville Public Library. The performance is part of the 2026 Artosphere Festival which continues with programming presented by the Walton Arts Center through Tuesday.

I've been trying to find an event to shoot from the Artosphere's calendar, but this is the first one that I could find that fit into my schedule and would give some good photos.

Jason Jones

2026-05-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

A cyclist crosses Meadow Street while riding north along the Frisco Trail past the Current on Center as it is nearing completion at its location on West Center Street in Fayetteville. Trail traffic that travels along the portion of the trail that runs alongside the project is scheduled to be detoured to West Avenue from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. this week to allow for the removal of the protective awning that currently covers the trail. The project is expected to be completed by week's end.

The mural by local artist Jason Jones is a real treat on the northeast corner of this building. This city is growing as about 40 people a day move to Northwest Arkansas. It's a staggering number and these projects are more and more common.

Huge

2026-05-07T23:46:00.000-05:00

Joel Jones (right) of Drone Crop Services in Farmington flies a drone for a group of growers and cattle farmers during an agricultural drone demonstration and workshop at the Washington County Cooperative Extension Service office in Fayetteville. The lunchtime workshop offered access to ask questions and speak with the owners of two commercial drone crop-spraying companies before a flight demonstration.

These drones are made to spray fields and they are enormous compared to the photography drones that we use. One of them at this event can carry 500 pounds, which is astonishing.

Suckers

2026-05-06T23:12:00.001-05:00

Bev Pergeson (right), a consumer lender and branch manager for First Security Bank, delights fourth-grade students from Washington Elementary School while showing them how to use a drive-through teller device to speak to fellow students inside the bank during a field trip to the bank in downtown Fayetteville. Fourth-grade students at the school visited the bank to learn about how a bank works and about jobs in the banking industry.

The students inside were sending suckers to the students outside, all while talking to them over the video screen. Pretty fun stuff.

Another trip around the sun

2026-05-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

Carson Gentry, a University of Arkansas student from Bentonville, laughs as her mother, Lesley Herr of Bentonville, takes a photograph while in graduation attire on the university campus in Fayetteville. This is Finals Week at the university, which will host commencement exercises Saturday.Gentry and Easton Kennedy (not pictured) are set to graduate Saturday before they relocate to Kansas City, Mo., to begin their careers.

Kennedy seemed to think that all of this was a little silly — and he had a point — but I told him that I had two photos of myself and my friends back then and that time goes by so fast. It's smart to stop every now and then and get some photos to remember before everything changes.

Lovely

2026-04-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

Artist Jim Mullenax of Prairie Grove draws a large flower planter during a meeting of the Plein Air Painters of the Ozarks at St. Catherine’s at Bell Gable in Fayetteville. The group meets weekly to paint outside before enjoying lunch together nearby.

This place is absolutely stunning so I had to go to this particular 'paintout' as they call them.

Humbling

2026-04-24T23:43:00.001-05:00

Ben Dykes (right), director of veteran services for Washington County, answers questions for representatives of area veterans service organizations and nonprofits during a tour of Patriot Park in Fayetteville. The development is meant to provide subsidized housing with a priority for veterans.

While taking part in this tour and reading some of the material that was provided to us, I realize that though I have worked for this newspaper for more than 30 years, I qualify for Section 8 housing subsidies. It's times like these that I roll my eyes when I hear about these great media conspiracies that are meant to mislead our fellow members of the public. We don't get paid enough to be conspiring against our own interests and the interests of our readers. We qualify for food stamps because we chose to do an important job correctly for long hours and very low pay.

Earth Day

2026-04-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

Jane Maginot, a county extension agent for Washington County, threads a spigot into a rain barrel used to collect rain water during an Earth Day event at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Office in Fayetteville. The university plans its annual Farm Friends event which features interactive educational demonstrations with live animals 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Arena in Fayetteville.

It was so good to spend time with Maginot, but even more fun was meeting a woman from Lexington, Ky., which is close to where I am from originally. Like every other Kentuckian I have met, she was easy to spot in her Keeneland ballcap.

Long time, no see

2026-04-21T23:09:00.001-05:00

Carpenter Dave Baer, owner of Dovetail Cooperative, shims rafter tails while working on the roof of the smokehouse on the grounds of Headquarters House in Fayetteville. The structure was built shortly after the adjacent house was built in 1853 and is receiving a new roof before shake shingles are installed later this week.

Dave was once the lead contractor for Habitat for Humanity here. When I would visit one of the worksites, joking around with him was easily my favorite part of my visit. I haven't seen him in years, so it was good to run into him on this very cool project.

Paw paw

2026-04-17T23:12:00.000-05:00

Judy Costello (left), education manager at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, shows first-grade students from Washington Elementary School in Fayetteville a paw paw tree while taking part in a morning of programming at the museum in Springdale. Renovations to the museum, which include improvements to the museum's entrance, bathrooms, reception area and outdoor pathways, are complete.

Seeing a paw paw tree always reminds me of my professor from college who would dance a little jig whenever we came across a paw paw tree while out in the woods. It was a dead giveaway for what kind of tree it was so we all knew at least that much for the tests we took during class to identify plants.

So sweet

2026-04-14T23:55:00.001-05:00

Avery Chapman (right), a student at the University of Arkansas from Corte Madera, Calif., thinks while penning a letter to her future self alongside mentor Myra Denny at the Fulbright Dining Hall on the university campus in Fayetteville. Chartwells Higher Education, which operates the university's food services, hosted "ImpactFul" events at the university as a part of a nationwide effort to show how campus dining can be welcoming, impact student wellness and support sustainability. Students were treated to several activities and offered plant-based and Arkansas-inspired food options during the midday meal time.

Meeting these two kind souls absolutely made my day.

Gimongous

2026-04-09T23:27:00.000-05:00

An Antonov AN2 is prepared for departure at the Fayetteville Executive Airport. The plane, the world's largest single-engine biplane, spent the winter on display at the Arkansas Air and Military Museum and left to take part in an airshow.

This thing is HUGE and so incredibly SLOW but really cool.

Always learn something

2026-04-08T23:23:00.001-05:00

Woodworker Jake Hollimon shows the details of one of the shutters he and Chase Otwell built while installing the historically accurate shutters at Headquarters House in Fayetteville. The shutters were paid for by local donors to a fundraising effort and were built locally by AllFab Integration. The Washington County Historical Society plans a public ceremony to reveal and celebrate the return of the shutters to the Civil War-era house at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

I have the pleasure of meeting and learning from so many talented people, and Hollimon is definitely one of those people.

Stonebreaker

2026-04-07T23:25:00.000-05:00

Chloe Regan (left), event sales manager at The Stonebreaker Hotel, leads a tour of the hotel's event space during brunch and a tour of the hotel as part of a class led by the University of Arkansas Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Fayetteville. Class participants enjoyed brunch before going on a tour of the facility which is located at the site of the former Pratt Place Inn and Barn.

This place is bonkers it's so nice.

Inspiring

2026-04-06T23:40:00.000-05:00

Karsen Mitchell (right) and Justin Schwarz join other high school seniors in taking their oath of enlistment during a ceremony hosted by Our Community Salutes USA, to recognize high school students who are enlisting in the U.S. military at the Fayetteville Town Center.

This was a very impressive ceremony and one that I look forward to covering again.

Lucky > Good

2026-04-03T23:51:00.001-05:00

Brinley Dobbs, a junior at Lincoln High School and member of the school's FFA program, defends her assessment of livestock during the livestock evaluation portion of the state FFA Career Development competition inside the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. The two-day competition featured a long list of categories for FFA teams from across the state.

When the idea I had for a photo did not work out, I decided to duck into the animal science center to see why there were so many school busses parked outside and found an FFA competition going on. Win!

Hard work

2026-04-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

Sawyer Crider (left) and Andrew Snider, both hardscape installers with Fay-Ark Lawn Company, unload trees while working on the Farmington Public Library's outdoor living space on the library's grounds in Farmington. The library received an $80,000 Community Placemaking Grant to create a stage, an area to read, a "storywalk" pathway and landscaping. A dedication and celebration ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. to noon May 2.

This sort of work is so difficult and physical. I was glad that they had the excavator to help them out.