Friday, July 1, 2011

Top 5: Places to Photograph the Portland Skyline

Here are my picks for the top 5 places from which to photograph the Portland, Maine skyline, using photos that I've taken over the years. Portland's skyline is not quite as impressive as New York's or  San Francisco's, but it gets the job done. One's initial impression of the city can depend on which angle the city is viewed. To the list, in no real particular order:

1. From the Casco Bay Bridge. If I was introducing someone to Portland for the  first time, the  view  from the bridge would be a good first impression, especially by foot or bicycle.


2. Undisclosed location. This view from the north and west of the peninsula is pretty unique. Given the terrain of the area, there aren't a lot of places where you can get a view of the city from this far away. View the below photo much larger on my flickr.


3. University of Southern Maine Campus. Just across I-295, the USM campus has  some good views from the parking garage, pictured below, or from some of the top floors of the academic buildings. The below photo is from 2006, I should try to take the photo again sometime.


4. Intermed Building, Bayside. Although taking a photo from this building means that the skyline view  doesn't include the Intermed building (not a huge loss though), it affords quite a view over Bayside.



5. Standpipe Park and/or North Street, Munjoy Hill. This is one of my favorite places to view the city's skyline. Here's an example:


I would do 5 more but I have run out of time. Maybe that will be a post next week, stay tuned!

3 comments:

  1. Heh. I've always wanted to climb that undisclosed location ;)

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  2. I was going to add that across the blvd is poretty sweet, but I suppose that view is even better from the top of the intermed bldg, because then that structure is not blocking anything. I thought the undisclosed location was that storage place on Canco? Maybe not, but there are some good views from up there too!

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  3. Thanks for the comments, Rob and Patrick. Yes, the "undisclosed location" is off of Canco Road and it's google-able if anyone is interested in directions. It's not open to the public, unfortunately.

    I will definitely have to to a follow up to this post, as I have a few other places that afford good views of the skyline.

    Side note, this article was referenced in the Portland Daily Sun newspaper, published July 2nd, 2011. Thanks!

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