The best Press Herald photography in January 2022

To purchase a print or merchandise of any of these photos, visit our photo store.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Rebecca Kirgan teaches her 3-year-old son how to ice skate at Capisic Pond in Portland on January 26. Kirgan said it was only his second time on skates.

Photo by Gregory Rec

A Sugarloaf employee drives a snowmobile around snowmaking guns on on January 8. Early in the month, ski areas were busy making snow to compensate for this winter’s slow start in Maine.

Photo by Carl D. Walsh

Spartan Sea Farms owners Owen Heil and Ken Sparta tend to their scallop crop in the waters off the South Freeport town wharf.

Photo by Ben McCanna

Hawa Zaman places roses on the unmarked gravesite of her grandfather Mohammad Safai, while her grandmother Shafia Safai, left, and mother Marzia Zaman look on. Portland’s immigrant community raised over $3,000 in donations to put a headstone on Safai’s grave. He died from COVID-19 last year. Now the headstone sits in the engraver’s shop, waiting to be placed at Evergreen Cemetery, because government regulations require his widow to repay over $5,000 in General Assistance benefits to accept the headstone. A fund was set up to help the Westbrook widow after the story was published in the Portland Press Herald.

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Cindy Shove of Yarmouth takes a Covid test at Yarmouth Public Works on January 18. Yarmouth has maintained one of the most comprehensive COVID-19 response efforts in Maine, including everything from consistent wastewater testing to establishing a quarantine support group to help sick or quarantined people.

Photo by Derek Davis

John Hanchock of Ipswich Bay Glass works on the new windows of a parking garage on Fore Street in Portland on Jan. 13.

Photo by Ben McCanna

Zack Chase seen through the closed front door of his Biddeford home. Chase wasn’t surprised when his COVID-19 test came back positive. He woke up with a tickle in his throat and a little bit of congestion. Chase feels lucky that, so far, he and his family have been largely unscathed. He’s been employed throughout the pandemic, switching jobs last summer, and hasn’t really been economically impacted.

Photo by Carl D. Walsh

Sub-zero morning temps create sea smoke covered scene of the Willard Beach Fish Houses, with Portland Headlight in the background on January 16.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Margret Valerio, 16, a junior at Casco Bay High, outside of her school on January 14. She knew so many people with COVID-19, she worried about having to return to remote learning.

Photo by Ben McCanna

Peter McMillen, 76, tested positive for COVID-19 last week with a store-bought test and was pretty sick for several days. He is vaccinated and boosted and had been staying out of crowded places. His domestic partner Katharine Ingwersen has also tested positive but has no symptoms other than fatigue.

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Luisa Mandiangu,13, standing, an 8th grader at Memorial Middle School in South Portland who came to Maine from Angola assists classmate Pedro Sebastiao 13, an 8th grader who also came from Angola with an assignment during “target time” an intervention program where students work to get caught up to grade level on a number of subjects at the middle school on January 26.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Joe Bruno, of Community Pharmacy, gives Brice Macdonald his booster shot at Goodfire Brewing’s “Booze-ter Clinic,” on January 8.

Photo by Deirdre Fleming

Typically, reporters do not take photos for their stories, but Deirdre Fleming got word at the last minute about a loon rescue at Kezar Lake on Jan. 13. The story was about the biologists trying to save loons stuck in holes in the frozen lake far off shore. The ice was so thin, there was a danger the biologists would fall in. Deirdre knew the moment for the best photo was right when they started inching onto the ice. She had been there for three hours when the rescue began, and jumped at the chance when the manager of the camp invited her to go in and get warm in a cabin. The cabin was right where the biologists stepped on to the thin ice- and it had a balcony. She got this wonderful bird’s eye view from there.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling and other members of the Trelawny Tenants Union stand outside the Trelawny Building on Congress Street in Portland on January 25. Strimling says the landlord is trying to evict him for co-founding the Trelawny Tenants Union, which complained to the city about rent increases at the building, in violation of Portland’s rent control ordinance.

Photo by Derek Davis

A plume of frigid air greets passersby on Congress Street on January 11, when Portland’s daytime high hit about 14 degrees.

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

A bald eagle takes flight from a tree in the Scarborough Marsh on January 27.

Photo by Ben McCanna

Joshua Tiffany, director of Gray Public Library, holds a stack of some of the most borrowed books of 2021.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Set against a large, dark offshore cloud bank, a car travels along Beach Avenue in Kennebunk before sunrise as sea smoke rises off the ocean.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Thornton Academy players celebrate a basket during their game against South Portland on January 18.

Photo by Derek Davis

Abbie Wood looks out of a window of a coffee shop on Exchange Street while sitting with her friend Logan Walter on January 13. The college students from Portland were home on break.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Christine Burns Rudalevige lifts out a slice of chocolate cake with mocha frosting, both flavored with leftover morning brews. From a Green Plate Special story on what to do with leftover coffee and coffee grounds.