Portland may not seem as interesting a place for Black & White Street Photography as New York City on the face of it, but if you spend sufficient time and get to the right places, you will catch the drift. The city of Portland changes landscape for street photographers from one season to another.
The spring & the summer months bringing in tons of tourists in Maine & it is often difficult to get a seating at a decent restaurant for lunch, while in the winter months the desolate streets pose more of a very serene & somber image of a place that is struggling financially.
Business is low in winter. With most of its livelihood coming in from tourists in spring & summer, many small businesses often struggle to keep themselves running during the off-tourist seasons, offering strange discounts for their strange businesses.
Spring & summer are vibrant and downtown Portland is always bustling with a lot of life. The picture above shows 2 young businessmen who run a boutique clothing store on the waterfront relaxing with their then 10 year old husky Midnight.
The waterfront is the busiest place in summer, with eateries of all sorts finding it hard to keep up with the crowd eager to have a bite. From lobster shacks to 3 star hotels and every dining restaurant in between often see long queues of hungry tourists patiently waiting & enjoying the beautiful weather.
For street photographers, especially if you are interested in black & white images, the area around the waterfront on either side of the bridge and all through the Old Port area will provide great opportunities for a wide variety of pictures – from old colonial buildings, to a glimpse of the skyline of the downtown.