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 inMaine
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.
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Posted inMaine, Sports, Varsity Maine
Photos: Maine high school basketball tournament
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 23, 2022.
Posted inMaine
In photos: Scenes of a frozen Maine
Portraits of winter in Maine by the Press Herald’s photographers
Posted inMaine
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.
Posted inMaine, 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 inMaine, 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 inMaine
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 inMaine, 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 inMaine
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.