Portraits of winter in Maine by the Press Herald’s photographers
Shawn Patrick Ouellette
Staff Photographer
Shawn has been a staff photographer at the Portland Press Herald since 2002. He previously worked for the Journal Tribune in Biddeford from 1993 to 2002, and as an intern with the Miami Herald in 1992.
During his years with the Portland Press Herald Shawn has traveled to Iraq to document the work of the Maine Army National Guard, photographed the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, and was the lead photographer on a year-long project chronicling the challenges of aging in Maine. This project earned the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram the prestigious Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism, as well as Regional Emmy Award for one of the videos that documented a family’s journey with Hospice.
He and his colleagues have recently focused their attention on the Coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. As a native Mainer, whose family has been in Maine for seven generations, he feels fortunate for the opportunity to help tell the stories of Maine for the past 28 years and looks forward to many more.
Shawn lives in Saco with his wife Amy, who is a fifth-grade teacher, and has two grown daughters.
Posted inLocal & State
The best Press Herald photography in January 2022
January is the time we settle into the start of real winter with its bone-chilling cold, its scant hours of daylight, its snow and ice. Take a look at some of our best photography from the month as entertainment during a time of isolation.
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Posted inLocal & State, News
2021 Photos of the Year: Photographers’ Choice
2021 was a roller coaster ride. It started with mobs attacking the Capitol to try to overturn the presidential election and is ending with a new surge of the coronavirus. There was enough bad news – fires, floods, disasters of every natural and manmade kind – to make you want to bury your head under the covers and stay there. But there was also the miracle of vaccines – by the end of June, hardly any vaccinated people were dying of COVID-19. We gained a new appreciation of the simple but deep pleasures of meeting with family and friends, going to a country fair or a high school baseball game, looking for beauty in the flight of an owl or a solar eclipse at dawn. For our 2021 Photos of the Year collection, Portland Press Herald photographers voted on one another’s photos, then selected their own favorites from the top vote-getters. We hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them.
Posted inLocal & State, News
2021 Photos Of the Year: A Pandemic Story
The wide availability of vaccines was supposed to get COVID-19 under control in 2021. Instead, the pandemic has worsened. With high levels of transmission and the arrival of the omicron variant, the winter months look bleak. But Mainers are resilient and resourceful. Children are in school, live entertainment has returned, and restaurants and other businesses survived – and in some cases thrived. Wearing masks has become commonplace, as has caring for our neighbors. Take a look back at the pandemic in Maine in 2021 through the eyes of Portland Press Herald photographers.
Posted inLocal & State
In photos: Maine summer in full swing
It begins unofficially after Memorial Day, with flowers in full bloom in June and ever-lengthening hours of sunshine. July brings the heat, warmer ocean water in the southern part of the state – and the tourists. It begins to slip through our fingers in August, all too soon. Summer in Maine.
Posted inLocal & State, Sports, Varsity Maine
In photos: Highlights of the spring season’s high school sports
The sound of a ball smacking a glove or a bat, feet pounding up dust, fans cheering on a warm evening, it’s all ours again as life returns to normal. Peruse these Portland Press Herald photographs of high school sports this spring season.
Posted inLocal & State
In photos: Graduating seniors celebrate a major milestone
The pandemic made this a challenging year for Maine students, but many seniors were able to celebrate their high school graduation with in-person ceremonies. Portland Superintendent Xavier Botana, at Deering High School’s graduation on June 2, noted the senior class missed out on many of the most cherished rituals of their junior and senior years, saying, “We’re very proud of you, Class of 2021, for how you’ve handled this hardest of years.” Portland Press Herald photographers captured the joy of the moment at several local graduations.
Posted inLocal & State
In photos: Maine teens who got vaccines
Press Herald photographers caught up to Portland-area high school students getting their COVID-19 vaccinations this spring. Here’s what they had to say.
Posted inLocal & State
In photos: Scenes of April give way to flowers of May
Our photographers capture the dreary and the glorious of April before it finally yields to the sunshine of true spring.
Posted inLocal & State
In photos: Despite a pandemic, Maine’s maple season remains just as sweet
Pure maple syrup is a beautiful thing, sweet, with complex flavors, and it can only come from boiling the sap from a tree, a time-consuming process dependent on the weather. This year was off to a slow start with a warm January and “stone cold” February, according to Michael Bryant of Hilltop Boilers in Newfield. But the sap is running in March, and the coming week should be a good one if it doesn’t get too warm. Maine Maple Sunday is March 28, but this year the 38th annual event will have adjusted hours and options because of the coronavirus pandemic. Press Herald photographers visited some southern Maine makers busy producing syrup last week.