Portland Monthly Photo 2011

I did this last year, so I figure I should make this a yearly tradition. Here is a photo from each month of 2011. Not necessarily my "best" or favorite photo from each month, but a photo from each month nonetheless. You can check out the monthly archives of this site at anytime by scrolling down to the "Blog Archive" section in the right hand column.

January 2011 (<-click to go to this month in the archives)

Park Street in Snow.

February 2011

Cumberland Ave from Above.

March 2011

Benny's Famous Fried Clams.

April 2011

Congress Street Mystery

May 2011

Photo taken from one of my top 5 places to photograph the Portland skyline.

June 2011

Petite Jacqueline restaurant at Longfellow Square. 

July 2011

Looking into the Past: Monument Square

August 2011

Looking Down: From the Portland Observatory. 

September 2011

Scooter on Exchange Street.

October 2011

Sunset from Standpipe Park on Munjoy Hill.

November 2011

Nomad. 

December 2011

Casco Bay Lines ferry passing Fort Gorges. 

That's all for now. Thanks for a great year! This site had over 60,000 unique visitors this year (a number that goes up every year). And that number doesn't include the people who follow this blog via a feed or the people who may only view my photos on other sites (Flickr, Tumblr, Corey Templeton Photography, etc) and never actually visit this blog. Stay tuned for another year of photos from Portland.

Reader Photos: Tom Whitney Photography

This morning I have some reader photos to share from Mr. Tom Whitney of Thomas Whitney Photography. Check out his Flickr here and his photo website over here. Tom submitted these awesome photos to the Portland Maine Daily Photo Flickr group. If you have some photos you'd like to share with the readers of this blog, feel free to add them to the group or send them to me via email, and I'd be happy to post them eventually.

"Moonrise" by Tom Whitney. Link.

"Sailing Under the Full Moon" by Tom Whitney. Link.

"Petunias" by Tom Whitney. Link. 

Evening Walk

A stroll through Monument Way, the pedestrian-only street connecting Monument Square and Free Street.

Downtown Sundown

Lobsterman's Park, corner of Temple and Middle Streets.

Aerial view of the corner of Free and Temple Streets. I posted a street level view last week. 

Red & Green

Portland's Central Fire Station was lit up for the holidays with red and green exterior lights. I have lots of holiday-themed photos that I haven't posted yet so they will continue to come for the next few weeks.

Front Page

In case you missed it, you can read the article in the Portland Daily Sun about my Blogging For Good initiative here. 

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and so forth!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and every other possible holiday plus a happy New Year from Portland, Maine!

Silent Night

Looking inside the seasonally-decorated the Wadsworth-Longfellow House on Congress Street. 

Blogging for Good - Wayside Food Programs

Greetings! This post is part of the "Blogging for Good - Portland, Maine Edition 2011" challenge/initiative/campaign that you might have heard me talking about recently. This "Blogging for Good" thing is a call to local bloggers inviting them to publish a post between December 18th and 25th about a local organization or cause that they care about.  You can check out the "Blogging for Good" page on my website, or also read this article in today's Portland Daily Sun about this event. Thanks to everyone who has participated and also to all the folks who have read these great posts!

I decided to shine the spotlight on Wayside Food Programs for my Blogging for Good post. Their vision is simply stated as:

"All people should have access to the food they need"

It's a simple vision, and one that is easy to identify with. Whenever I've stepped back and examined the things in my life that are wants and the things that are needs, I find only a few things that are truly needs. One of those needs that everyone shares is the need for food. Regardless of one's opinions, life experiences, religion, political affiliation, and so forth, I think we can all agree that food is a basic necessity and that access to food is a basic human right. 

Wayside is in its 25th year (hey, so am I) and continues to be a vital program for the Greater Portland community. They accomplish their goal of providing access to food for those in need by partnering with "more than 60 agencies throughout Cumberland County, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters." A few organizations they partner with in Portland include Hope.Gate.Way, Parkside Neighborhood Center, and Woodford's Congregational Church. 

Check out the Wayside Food Program's website for more information about the organization and for information about donating money, time, or food to help them reach their vision.

Flashback: December 2010

Having some technical difficulties posting with my phone. I will update this post later with pictures. For now, you can pick out your own favorite photos that I posted last December: http://www.portlanddailyphoto.com/2010_12_01_archive.html?m=1

Update - Here are some selections:

Congress Street Snow.

Free Street Walker.

Irish Heritage Center (formerly St Dominic's Church)

Port City Music Hall

Window Trees

At the corner of Exchange Street and Fore Street.

On Union Street, looking into the TD Bank branch.

Above Hallowed Ground

A Christmas Tree above Hallowed Ground on Congress Street.

Courthouse Exoskeleton

Cumberland County's Superior Court building under scaffolding. A good subject for black & white. 

Also, I hear today is the last day to order items from Cafepress and receive them by Christmas with standard shipping. They happen to print and sell my photo calendar, a product I fully and shamelessly endorse. Or you can wait until after the holidays and order one for yourself. I am pretty sure the price even goes down automatically after January 1st.

Where Downtown Meets the Old Port

Looking towards Monument Square from the intersection of Free and Temple Streets. 

Chimneys

A collection of chimneys attached to buildings on Spring Street in the West End.

Longfellow Statue

Longfellow Statue in Longfellow Square, with its usual decorations. I posted a nighttime photo of the square a few days ago here.

Walking in a Straight Line - Part 2

I like this one better than the photo I originally posted. Featuring authentic lens flare.

Walking in a Straight Line

Congress Street sidewalk near Monument Square.

Holiday Tugboat

Not a killer shot by any means, but it was as close as I could get. You can only get this close when the Ocean Gateway surface parking lot is open. Maybe I can get back down there for another try before they remove the lights.

Gaslight District

A faux gaslight on Middle Street. 

Blogging For Good - Portland Edition

Are you a local blogger? You might interested in my "Blogging for Good" initiative. Check out this page for all the details.  I am inviting all local blogs to write a post about an organization or cause that they care about during the week of December 18th. What better time than the holiday season to help bring awareness to a worthy organization of your choosing? All local blogs of any size are invited to join. Send me an email if you and your blog are planning on participating. At the end of next week, I will put together links to the posts from each blog. 

The Faces on the Wall

Portraits on the side of Brian Boru's on Center Street. I beleive the portraits are part of the Portland Inside Out project. 

Not a White Christmas

Christmas Tree in in front of City Hall on Congress Street. 

And here's a preview of the February pages of my 2012 Calendar, check it out here. It makes a great stocking stuffer (if you cut it into several smaller pieces)!

Portland Pilot

Portland Pilot docked at Union Wharf. Wikipedia declares a pilot to be "a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths."

Longfellow Square Lights

Longfellow Square all decked out for the holidays. 

Portland Star Match Company

As mentioned in my post last week, here are some more photos of the Portland Star Match Company building on West Commercial Street. Congrats Ethan V. and RobC for correctly identifying the building based on my photographic hint.

And this photo is of the nearby wilderness. The West End neighborhood is on top of the hill to the left of this photo, the Portland Star Match Building is straight ahead somewhere, and West Commercial Street is to the right. Note the railroad tracks that used to run through this industrial area. The spot this photo was taken from is the site of a proposed new development. Also, along this railroad right-of-way is space for a possible trail connection between the new Veteran's Bridge and downtown by Portland Trails.

Oak Street Lofts

I attended an open house tour of the new Oak Street Lofts last weekend. The building is nearing completion and is looking great. It's located at 72 Oak Street, which is just off of Congress Street. The building consists of 37 efficiency apartments and is geared towards artists. In addition to some shared studio space, there is a gallery on the first floor for resident artists to display their work to the public 

Toward Congress Street from the second floor.

Towards Back Cove from the fourth floor.

The gallery space on the first floor.

I've been documenting this building's construction since before the foundation was poured and will probably put together a post of some photos in chronological order once it's all completed. Here's a photo in the meantime from back in April: