A Decade of Portland Daily Photo

Today marks the 10th year since I started my journey of sharing photos of my little city through the magic of the internet, at www.portlanddailyphoto.com. Remember when blogs were a thing? I had no idea when I started sharing my photos in 2008 that anyone would follow my work. Or that people would pay me for photos and it would develop into a legitimate small business. Looking back at my early photos is a painful exercise, but it's a great reminder that if you enjoy something and spend time practicing then you will get better. Or at the least, you'll have fun along the way. Thank you for following along and letting me share my perspectives with you.

Portland, Maine: The 2018 Calendar

It's the time of year to unpack the winter jackets, drink lots of hot cocoa and most importantly: Buy a calendar for 2018! What better calendar to start with than my annual effort, available now for just $20 here. Thanks everyone for supporting my photography over the years and letting me continue to share my perspective of this little city with you all.

Portland Downtown 2016/2017

You'll notice one of my photos on the cover and throughout the Portland Downtown map and directory again this year. It's always cool to see this one around town! [The delicious quiche in the photo was provided by Arabica).

The Sound of Corey Templeton Photography

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed down at One City Center for WJBQ's (97.9 on the FM dial) "97 Seconds" feature. Give it a listen here. You can tell by my voice that my photography is the only way I'd ever get airtime on a top-40 radio station! And in case you missed it, at the end of last month I was also featured in an episode about Instagram for the Social Dig Podcast. 

Landmarks

Have you seen the new Greater Portland Landmarks website? A good place to start is their inaugural blog posting, which features a few words from me. You'll notice a bunch of my photos up all over the site as well. It's pretty cool to work with the organization that is helping to preserve many of the buildings that play a role in my photographs.

City Flag

Did you know Portland has a city flag? It's basically just the city seal set against some blue cloth plus yellow text.

But ever since a TED Talk by Roman Mars ("Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed") from last year hit the internet there has been a growing sentiment that we should redesign it. Portland, after all, is home to a lot of creative folks who could surely make a better looking flag that represents our fair city.

The Bangor Daily News, in collaboration with some local folk such as Ben Coursey, a "Casco Bay High School student and flag aficionado," are holding a contest to come up with a new design to bring forward. Check it out here, and enter by March 28th.

PortlandMaine.Gov

In case you haven't heard the news yet, the new PortlandMaine.Gov website launched yesterday and features a few of my photos. As stated in the official press release, stop by the front steps of City Hall today (it's First Friday) from 5-8pm for tours of the features of the new site, as well as to see a dozen or so of my photos hanging up. I'll be there signing autographs and shaking hands. 

Portland Daily Postcard

It's been just about a year since I introduced the instantly popular Portland Daily Photo subscription plans (remember to renew your annual subscription now, before it's too late!), so I think it's a good time to announce my latest venture: Portland Daily Postcard.

That's right, an entire year of postcards, delivered to your doorstep nearly every day (pending the solvency of the United States Postal Service) for just $1 a day. Each postcard features a relatively beautiful photo of Portland plus a handwritten message on the back. When you think about it, how can you afford not to sign up or this opportunity? 

How often have you been reading Portland Daily Photo and thought to yourself: "Golly, I like seeing all these dandy photos of Portland for free at my own convenience, but it would really be the bee's knees if I could pay money for this and also have a stack of useless postcards cluttering my home!" If that is something you have ever said, then this offer is for you. 

Here are a few samples to whet your appetite:

Stay tuned for more information about where to sign up for this unique offer. In the meantime, you can enter this giveaway on my Facebook group to win a 12X18" print of your choice from Corey Templeton Photography.

Goodbye 2012

Another year has come and gone in a hurry, so it goes. I want to take a moment to thank all the visitors of this blog this past year (that includes you) and people who have followed my photography elsewhere online.

As of this evening, PortlandDailyPhoto.com has had over 73,000 unique visitors this year, which is up year-over-year. That number is especially pleasing considering how many people view my photos on my other sites (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, 500px, Tumblr, etc!) and never actually visit this blog.

It's been a been a fun year with a few firsts, such as my first First Friday showing and my first time having photographs in a few local magazines. I even managed to have a photo as a weather background graphic for the local NBC television affiliate (WCSH6 - Portland's News Leader), allowing me to sneak my photography into thousands of households every week for a few seconds.

Clockwise from top - Downeast Magazine, CBRE The Boulos Company Office Market Survey, Portland Magazine, WCSH6 Weather Graphic, Mainebiz Book, and another Portland Magazine photo. 

And as I usually do at the end of each year, here is a selection of photos, one from each month, taken over the last year. You can click the name of the month to view the archives from that particular timeframe:

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

Also, special thanks to everyone who has supported my hobby over the past year by purchasing my work over at Corey Templeton Photography, by buying a copy of my 2012 calendar, or by contacting me to license my photos for commercial or editorial use. See you all next year!

Places in Peril 2012

Greater Portland Landmarks recently announced their "Places in Peril List" for the year 2012. The list "Calls attention to character-defining, historically-significant properties that are in danger of being permanently lost of diminished."Here is a photo relating to each of the seven places on the list. 

Portland Company Complex, 58 Fore Street

House Island in Casco Bay. Photo taken from Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in South Portland.

The Maine National Guard Armory in South Portland.

The Masonic Temple Grand Lodge at 415 Congress Street. I got to go on an open-house tour of the building a few years ago and it really is pretty amazing inside. 

Grand Trunk Office Building, 1 India Street.

Abyssinian Meeting House (left), 73 Newbury Street.

Eastern Cemetery on Congress Street, near the foot of Munjoy Hill.

You can read all about these seven places and their significance here at the Greater Portland Landmarks website. 

First Friday - August 2012

I have been kindly invited by the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization to put my photos up for the First Friday Art Walk on August 3, 2012 at their Hill House. Come check out some of my "greatest hits" in person on the First Friday or throughout the month of August when the building is open. As a digital photographer I rarely see my photos in printed form, so it's been a fun experience seeing them in this new way.

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. 

American Censorship Day

In case you haven't been on the internet all day and missed it, today is American Censorship Day, because today the US House Judiciary Committee has a hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act.  Check out this website for some interesting details about how this act could negatively affect the internet at large. This article on Wired.com has a good summary of today's proceedings. To summarize the potential negative aspects of the act, if implemented:

"It would, in effect, allow companies to bypass the judicial system and take down or block websites simply by accusing a user of posting just potentially infringing content on a website. That could be as little as posting on a forum and talking about product, posting a picture of you with a logo in it, or posting a video with music in the background..."

As an internet content creator, a very small and insignificant one, I think these are valid concerns and I throw my support with the American Censorship Day organization.

1,000

Happy 1,000 Portland Daily Photo posts! All the posts are archived, so feel free to go back and check out some of the ones you may have missed. It doesn't work out to exactly 1 post a day since January 2008, but it's close enough. Some days there have been more than one posts and most posts have more than one picture, so it evens out. As always, thanks for your patronage to this site. I will get started on my collage for 2,000 posts soon.

Missiles over Portland?!

I think I captured a missile on camera this morning! First in Los Angeles and now in Portland, these are dangerous days. This object in the sky clearly can not be identified. I left messages with the local Coast Guard branch and the FBI but they have not returned my calls yet. I will keep you updated on the situation. So far, all signs point to this object as being a missile of some sort.

A closer look at the missile: 

State Theater - Opening Fall 2010?

Two posts in one day? I haven't done that in a while. Anyways, I haven't seen this elsewhere yet and I enjoy furthering speculation about local business openings/re-openings/re-re-openings. There were several stories a while back about the re-opening of the State Theater, but I also read a lot of comments that dismissed that possibility. FYI, it looks like the owners are submitting their application for the "Class A Lounge and entertainment with dance license" at the upcoming city council meeting and they are projecting a fall 2010 opening date.

Your Photo Here

I'm very open to guest posts. If you have a photo of Portland or something else that should be shared here, let me know and it can happen. You will retain all rights to your image/text and will be thoroughly credited. Mail to: coreytempleton@gmail.com

Portland is the Food Bloggiest City in America

In light of a recent article in Bon Appétit which calls Portland the "America's foodiest small town of 2009," I would like to put forth a new statement that Portland also has the most blogs about local food and restaurants. Although some of the food blogs around here only post links to other articles calling Portland the best food city/most restaurants per capita/etc, I think I still have a valid point. (I would find it hilarious of some of those blogs link to this post!)

In addition to the often said and equally as unprovavle (so far to my knowlege) sayings that Portland has the most restaurants per capita in the states, or at least as many as San Francsico, the Bon Appétit article says that "...per capita more money is spent in Portland restaurants than in any other U.S. city except San Francisco and New York..." As expected, this news made the rounds on all the local food and restaurant blogs.

In order to back-up my asseration that Portland has the most local food/restaurant blogs in America, here's a list of the blogs I know of in no particular order (feel free to add more in the form of a comment!)

Portland Fodder
Portland Psst!
Type A Diversions
Portland food Coma
Portland Food Map
Commune Tested, City Approved
Cornucopasetic
Accidental Vegetables
The Breakfast Club
Edible Obsessions
Diet for a Small City
Portland Food Heads

Also, Blueberry Files

Ok, maybe some other cities have more local food and restaurant blogs, but Portland might be right up there based on per-capita rankings!

Know Your Blog - Walk Around Portland

My other blog, Walk Around Portland, was featured in this week's 'Know Your Blog' on the Press Herald's website by Justin Ellis.

In the introduction to the Know Your Blog series, Justin wrote:

"If there's one thing we love more than bacon on the NXT Desk, it's local blogs. But for the longest time we've struggled on how to incorporate them better around here. Many of you probably notice that when I'm away from the desk or otherwise incapacitated I try to get local bloggers to keep the shop running.

But I think we need something on a more regular basis, and until we get together an NXT blogroll (the page may not be able to handle any more heft), I'm introducing "Know Your Blog," a new feature where we'll spotlight local bloggers on a regular basis. If you've got or know of a great local blog, e-mail me or find me on Twitter with your ideas."

It is an honor to be among the first blogs profiled for this feature. The first two were HillyTown and The Sunday Best. Send Justin your suggestions via the links above.

Walk Around Portland

Today I am semi-officially announcing a new blogging effort, Walk Around Portland. I am to discuss all things pedestrian, bicyclist, and non-vehicular around Portland and hope that a few people find it worth visiting on a regular basis. I have a few posts up, so check it out.

www.walkaroundportland.com