In photos: Sweet spring sugaring, a celebration of Maine Maple Weekend

Maine Maple Sunday is always the fourth Sunday of March, and this is the 39th year of the annual event, which features open sugarhouses throughout the state, farm tours, pancake breakfasts and sales of all kinds of maple products. This year was fully open, after a canceled year in 2020 because of the pandemic, and a modified event in 2021. Maine Maple Sunday is more than just a sales event, though. It’s a harbinger of sweet, sweet spring, after a long, cold winter.

St. Patrick’s Day in photos: With pandemic restrictions lifted, Mainers say ‘sláinte!’

In photos: A memorable February

It snowed, and thawed, and sleeted and thawed, and snowed some more. On the 23rd, we claimed spring for a day, breaking records when the temperature soared to the mid-60s. It was a month of bad ice, high energy costs, good skiing and great high school sports. Here are some of the best photos from the month by Press Herald photographers.

In photos: See the action from Saturday’s high school basketball championships

The Skowhegan High girls went undefeated, the Nokomis boys and 6-foot-7 freshman Cooper Flagg showed us why they’ve been the top story in Maine sports all season, and the South Portland boys team won its first state title in 30 years. Here are some of our favorite photos from the final day of Maine’s high school basketball tournament.

In photos: Saturday’s Maine high school basketball tournament games

High school basketball players made the shots and our photographers caught the action. Here are some of our favorite photos from Maine’s high school basketball tournament, February 26, 2022.

Photos: Thursday’s Maine high school basketball tournament games

High school basketball players made the shots and our photographers caught the action. Here are some of our favorite photos from Maine’s high school basketball tournament, February 24, 2022.

In photos: Scenes of a frozen Maine

Portraits of winter in Maine by the Press Herald’s photographers

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.

2021 Photos Of the Year: The Lobster Trap

Lobster is king on Vinalhaven, Maine’s second-richest port, but with the inhospitable effects of climate change and costly demands to protect right whales, those who make their living on the water wonder how long that can remain true. Their way of life is on the line. Photographer Brianna Soukup spent much of the summer on the island, photographing island life and lobstermen Frank Thompson, 65, and 15-year-old Tanner Lazaro.

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.