"Well, it's been a year." For many, it's probably been the longest year of their lives. Some have spent the year trying to find some normalcy while they've lived with friends, or family or out of hotels. Almost everyone had to deal with insurance companies and for some, that was a big struggle. Some people got some upgrades to their homes while others chose to or were forced to abandon their homes (or what was left of them) altogether. Business were effected or in some cases, obliterated. And overall, the landscape still looks battered and tired. Whatever your personal experience was with last year's tornados, it's safe to assume that people are still, even after a full year later, "dealing with it." And so here are a few photos to sum up the above words. For timing context, please note that most of these photos were taken on June 3rd, 2025...a little over a year after the tornado.

Happy April 1st.

PLEASE NOTE that the following collection of images represents REAL WORK with REAL CLIENTS and is meant to draw attention to some of our recent projects and not to confuse or mislead anyone. Included in this post are recent images for the following clients. Check them out as they’re really cool and really fun to work with.

Urban Land Institute
Buf Studio
Black Apple Hard Cider
University of Arkansas School of Art
Marsouls
Blake Street House
H Club
Arkansas Times
Crafton Tull
Ecological Design Group
Lighthouse Financial 

Enjoy!

Greetings and Happy Holidays from us here at Novo Studio. Now that the holiday season is upon us, we thought it would be a good idea to get around to updating our blog and social media with some recent work. Every year, it seems that the end of summer snowballs into fall. Work picks up, schedules become difficult and our capacity to continually update things stretches thin. But finally, here we are and my oh my, what year it has been.

For many of us, this year was largely defined by the severe weather of Memorial Day Weekend which resulted in multiple tornados and caused area-wide devastation. Many of our friends, clients and neighbors are STILL dealing with the impact from that weather and that is very sad and unfortunate. On a more positive note, we had a lot of fun with our work this year. In spite of some wild work scenarios and crazy deadlines, this year was so much fun and such a good learning experience.

Thank you to everyone for the support, the encouragement, and the opportunity to continue to do what we love.

See you all in the New Year.

Philip & Jared

This week on the blog: Recent Commercial Photo + Video work for Bentoville.

By now, many of you have probably heard about Bentoville, their world class cuisine and their equally accomplished chefs. Maybe you’ve experienced one of their amazing events in person. Or perhaps you’ve simply ordered one (or more) of their Bento Boxes for lunch or dinner. But if you HAVEN’T heard of Bentoville…

It’s always a joy to work with the fine folks at the University of Arkansas’s Center for Arkansas Farms and Food. (CAFF). The University’s continued support of educating both college aged students as well as interested adults on the fundamentals of farming, is noteworthy and commendable. A few times a year, we highlight certain students for their newsletter and blog. Here’s a few images from our recent visit.

Enjoy.

This week on the blog, we’re featuring some images captured for Safety Culture featuring their sponsored Nascar Driver, Shane Van Gisbergen (aka SVG). Van Gisbergen, who hails from Auckland New Zealand (with the accent to match), has been racing professionally for a good number of years but only just starting in the Nascar circuit as of May 2023. I had the opportunity to follow a Safety Culture video crew around for an entire week, documenting the meticulous process of training, engineering, planning and also, the race itself. It was in fact, a blast. Here are a few photos from the week.

Enjoy.

I could without a doubt, go on record to say that Jon Batiste is the happiest person I’ve ever seen perform live. Nothing about him or his performance was subtle, sad or dull. And while I’m personally drawn to sad, solemn musicians, I have a sneaking suspicion that following Batiste around for a day would do my soul a world of good. Fortunately, it only took a few hours photographing him, watching him and listening to his music to give me a better outlook on life and coincidentally, the experience of lifetime. Enjoy the photos and give him a listen if you haven’t already.

Today on the blog, we’re featuring images collected over the last few weeks that document the work of Jacob Paa Joe Jr., a visiting artist at the University of Arkansas School of Art.

(Click to view more photos and read an excerpt from the School of Art explaining a more about this unique artist and his work.)

Meet Emily Wold: Little Rock Resident, Successful Homesteader, Motorcycle Enthusiast, and the brains, brawn and vocal cords behind her wildly successful VoiceOver business, Fable Hound.

It is now November and the last time we updated the blog was after weeks and weeks of busyness and travel. It’s safe to say that aside from constant travel, things haven’t changed much. And for the most part, we’re not complaining. In fact recently, we had a first for the studio…live music. And that was so fun, we’ll be doing it again. But consistent photoshoots and video shoots followed by editing and managing those aforementioned shoots does create difficulties in keeping up with the normal, everyday tasks of managing and marketing a business. But today, we’re making time and space to share some images from the recent weeks. We sincerely hope that everyone is able to make some space to enjoy the cooler temperatures, the changing leaves, and life in general.

Happy Fall, Y’all.

It happens every time; I photograph a concert where I am unfamiliar with the music artist and 3 songs in, I’m hooked and I’m saving their songs to my iPhone. The latest instance however, was somewhat of a shock. I knew the Brothers Osborne was going to be a country music concert. The fact that a very large percentage of the concert goers walking in were wearing cowboy hats only solidified the fact. And as music genres go, Country Music admittedly has been the last genre to win me over. In fact, that’s still a work in progress. But these guys? They’re good. Damn good. REALLY damn good. And that has won me over, 3 songs in and counting. (Click to Read More)

If you are one of the many Northwest Arkansas residents that enjoys thoughtfully designed outdoor spaces such as The 8th Street Market, Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, Lake Atalanta or Osage Park, you should give a hearty round of applause to Ecological Design Group (EDG).

Click to Read More

Clicking camera buttons and keyboard keys all day leaves me itching to decompress by getting my hands dirty. Oftentimes, that happens by riding a bike (in which case, it’s my legs that get dirty). But I also enjoy cooking and as most everyone who has even flirted with the idea of learning to cook better, good food begins with good ingredients. At the Center for Arkansas Farms and Food, the University of Arkansas is giving people the chance to get an education and an experience in the world of farming. (Click to Read More)

This week on the blog, we’re sharing a few images from Thaden School and The Scout Guide Northwest Arkansas. Every year, The Scout Guide features prominent businesses and institutions in the Northwest Arkansas area, one of which happens to be Thaden School. This year, Thaden commissioned us to spend some time on campus, visiting a curated selection of classes. Most notable, was the anatomy class where they happened to be dissecting sheep brains that day. As you can see from the below image, some students took drastic measures to avoid the….”peculiar odor.” (click to read more)

As a photographer, it’s easy to put Blake St. House into words; simply beautiful. For starters, it’s a well designed space with an abundance of natural light, high end decor and plenty of photogenic coziness. As a member of BlakeSt. however, it’s a bit more difficult to putting this fine establishment into words. It’s almost like you need to actually experience it to be able to understand it and even after the experience, I’m still not sure words are easy to come by. But to me anyway, the closest description I can conjure up, is that it just feels like home.

We recently had the opportunity to experience Crystal Bridge’s Pintura Festival, cameras in-hand. Of course, carrying around our cameras didn’t leave our hands free to enjoy the delicious looking street corn they were serving. But sometimes as a commercial photographer, those are the breaks. We did however get to witness…(click to read more)

There is no shortage of pizza establishments in Northwest Arkansas. And that’s a good thing, because while most people will argue all day about their preferred toppings for pizza, everyone I’ve ever met (and this is a true statement) likes pizza. Some people even love it. I know I fall into this particular camp. I have my favorite places too. And thanks to a recent editorial photography assignment for Arkansas Times, I can safely, confidently and wholeheartedly add Pizzeria Ruby to my list of favorite pizza joints. (click to read more)

I always value my time working with people in the food service industry, especially Chefs. For a Chef to take precious time out of their prep work to accommodate a photographer in their own restaurant space is the kindest of gestures. And that’s exactly what Chef Rafael Rios of Yeyo’s did for me recently, when Arkansas Times hired me to photograph him and his space for a magazine article. Prior to the shoot, Chef Rios told me to “Come Hungry”.

(Click to Read More)

A couple weeks ago, we had the opportunity to travel around Arkansas and work with an amazing crew of directors, camera operators, grip people, producers and talent. Of course on jobs like this, there are always plenty ty of behind the scenes images captured. Today, we’re sharing some. Many thanks to 360 Film Works for having us along for the ride.

Cheers.