Each year, the office staff at Lincoln Daily News is tasked with choosing 10 to 12 favorite photos from a specific quarter of the years. This year Karen Castelein was assigned the first quarter of the year. Jeff Wyles drew the second quarter, Angela Reiners the third and Devyn Fry the fourth.

Then, after reviewing all those photos, Nila Smith is supposed to pick one from the whole and name it the photo of the year in Lincoln Daily News. This is not an easy task because there are so many good shots that were published and it is extremely difficult to choose only one.

The staff often choose photos for what they represent or say about our community. Smith on the other hand likes to choose the top photo based more on composition and eye appeal.

The 2025 Picture of the year was taken by Lee & Angela Reiners on a cold winter night after a snowfall in rural Emden. The shot was a Smith favorite from the time she first saw it. The photo is sharp and clean, and the golden glow cast over the barn and barnyard from the outdoor light takes what would have been a stark black and white world and turns it into something warm and inviting.

“This is a hard assignment,” says Smith, “because our staff and stringers do a wonderful job taking photos and recording the history of our community. Staff chose 49 pictures, but during the course of a year, LDN publishes thousands of photos. The easy way out on this assignment would be to say they are all the best pictures of the year, but I’m sure no one would want to click through that slideshow!”

LDN                      (click on image to enlarge)