‘It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my whole life – just on top of the world.’

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.

Visitors to Scarborough Beach State Park this summer got to see a new face in the lifeguard station: Beacon, a Newfoundland puppy who’s being trained by owner and perennial lifeguard Greg Wilfert and other lifeguards to help save lives.  “It is another tool to use with the lifeguards,” said Wilfert, who celebrated his 50th season […]