ROBERT F. BUKATY

Veronique Plesch, an art professor at Colby College, gives a lecture to art teachers about the frescoes that adorn the walls and ceiling of the South Solon Meeting House, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Solon, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
AP PHOTOS: Inside Maine’s hidden ‘Sistine Chapel’ with 70-year-old frescoes
The recent launch of a website dedicated to frescoes in a Maine meeting house has created a new surge of interest in the paintings. Colby College students created the website for the South Solon Meeting House.
 
Dancer Sara Cook performs at the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, at the Hanover Theater in Worcester, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Teen dancers descend on Massachusetts to compete in the ‘American Idol’ of ballet
Some might call it the “American Idol” of ballet dancing. Hundreds of young ballet dancers from the Northeast spent the past few days in Massachusetts auditioning for a prestigious scholarship at the Youth America Grand Prix.
 
Colorful lights shine inside inside the walls of ice at Ice Castles, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in North Woodstock, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Dazzling Ice Castles draw tourists to New Hampshire and other states
An annual architectural celebration of ice is up and running again in New Hampshire and several other states. Ice Castles, which are both temporary art installations and tourist attractions, feature towers, tunnels, archways and caves.
 
Michael Batakis carries Hannah Batakis through a muddy water pit during the North American Wife Carrying Championship, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, at Sunday River ski resort in Newry, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Mud, beer and cash: Annual wife-carrying championship attracts competitive couples to Maine
An annual event in Maine involving mud, beer and cash has once again drawn dozens of eager competitors. More than 30 couples participated Saturday in the North American Wife Carrying Championship.
 
The Mudshark's Jevin Smith, center, gets around Muddas' blocker Kurt Mailloux to put pressure on quarterback Jay Holder in a football game at the 2024 Mud Bowl Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in North Conway, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Joy in Mud Bowl: Football tournament celebrates 50 years of messy fun
College football players aspire to play in bowl games. Professional players dream of playing in the Super Bowl. On Sunday, a bunch of amateurs in New Hampshire just wanted to get muddy.
 
Ice chips fly as Nate Lord chops out a block at Rockywold Deephaven Camps, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Holderness, N.H. Ice harvested from Squam Lake during the winter is insulated with sawdust in an ice house. It is used for refrigeration in ice boxes at each guest cabin throughout the summer. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
As millions sweat out the heat wave, blocks of lake ice keep these campers cool
A heat wave is moving closer to the breaking point from the Midwest to New England, but there’s no immediate relief in sight for much of the rest of the country.
 
The northern lights flare in the sky over a farmhouse, late Friday, May 10, 2024, in Brunswick, Maine. Brilliant purple, green, yellow and pink hues of the Northern Lights were reported worldwide, with sightings in Germany, Switzerland, London, and the United States and Canada. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Seeking the northern lights was a family affair for this AP photographer
Robert Bukaty has covered nearly every type of story and event for The Associated Press in his 30-year career, from the somber to the exhilarating: a mass shooting, COVID-19, presidents, political campaigns, ski racing — a lot of ski racing — Olympics, and everyday life in Maine.
 
Islay Sheil, 14, of Lakeville, Conn., speeds down a 39-meter jump during the Eastern Ski Jumping Meet, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024, in Milan, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Young ski jumpers take flight at country’s oldest ski club in New Hampshire
Some of the Northeast’s best young ski jumpers took flight at the country’s oldest ski club on Sunday. They are part of a comeback for the once-popular winter sport featuring speed, skill and sometimes spills.
 
In this photo provided by Ed Smith, Geoffrey Holt rests his leg on top of his riding mower in Hinsdale, N.H., on April 4, 2020. Holt left the town of Hinsdale nearly $4 million when he died last June. (Ed Smith via AP)
New Hampshire man had no car and no furniture, but died with a big secret, leaving his town millions
For years, Geoffrey Holt was known as a mobile home park groundskeeper in a small New Hampshire town. Now, he’s being remembered as a millionaire who gave his fortune to the community. Holt died in June at age 82.
 
People sign "I love you" while gathered at a vigil for the victims of Wednesday's mass shootings, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023, outside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Maine mass shooter’s family reached out to sheriff 5 months before rampage, sheriff’s office says
Maine’s authorities are trying to piece together the events that led to the worst mass shooting in the state’s history.
 
People gather at a vigil for the victims of Wednesday's mass shootings, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023, outside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
More than 1,000 pay tribute to Maine’s mass shooting victims on day of prayer, reflection on tragedy
More than 1,000 people gathered for an evening vigil to remember those killed and wounded in Maine’s worst mass shooting. The names of the 18 killed were read aloud at Sunday’s event.
 
Chris Crawford, of Mount Desert Island, Maine, films the raging surf near Otter Point in Acadia National Park as severe weather associated with storm Lee pounds the region, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, in Bar Harbor, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Atlantic storm Lee delivers high winds and rain before forecasters call off all warnings
Atlantic storm Lee made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds, rough surf and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada.
 
Waves crash against the rocks at Portland Head Light, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2023, in South Portland, Maine. Severe conditions were predicted across parts of Massachusetts and Maine, and hurricane conditions could hit the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where the storm, Lee, downgraded early Saturday from hurricane to post-tropical cyclone, was expected to make landfall later in the day. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Thousands without power and 1 dead after Atlantic storm Lee pummels New England and Maritime Canada
Atlantic storm Lee has made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, at near-hurricane strength with sustained winds of 70 mph.
 
Republican presidential candidate former Vice President Mike Pence responds to a question during a town hall campaign event, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, at New England College in Henniker, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pence rails against Trump’s ‘siren song of populism’ as he tries to energize his 2024 campaign
Former Vice President Mike Pence is casting the 2024 election as a fight for the future of conservatism and the GOP.
 
Worker who herded people out before explosion is called hero
A police chief says a fast-thinking maintenance manager saved lives by evacuating employees before a building was leveled by an explosion that left him gravely injured.
 
Quarantined nurse leaves New Jersey for Maine
Health officials said Saturday that nurse Kaci Hickox tested negative for Ebola. Hickox left a hospital Monday afternoon, to be taken to Maine, where she lives.