Ben McCanna has been a staff photographer (and occasional writer) at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram since 2015 and has been working for newspapers since 2010. Ben studied creative writing and literature at Emerson College and embarked on a decade-long career in publishing after graduating in 1997. In his mid 30s, Ben shifted careers by taking a job as a reporter at a small newspaper in northwest Colorado and never looked back. Over the years, he slowly transitioned from writer to photographer - his true passion. Ben is a 2018 winner of an Award of Excellence from Pictures of the Year International. He lives on Peaks Island with his wife, a nurse practitioner, and two sons.
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PublishedMay 17, 2021
In photos: Maine teens who got vaccines
Press Herald photographers caught up to Portland-area high school students getting their COVID-19 vaccinations this spring. Here’s what they had to say.
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PublishedMay 3, 2021
In photos: Scenes of April give way to flowers of May
Our photographers capture the dreary and the glorious of April before it finally yields to the sunshine of true spring.
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PublishedMarch 15, 2021
In photos: Let there be light
Daylight saving time started again on Sunday, leading to dreams of those long summer nights in Maine, when the sun doesn’t set until after 8 p.m. There’s a bipartisan bill in Congress now, called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, sponsored by politicians as different as U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would make DST permanent. If it passes, we would not switch our clocks back in the fall. Meanwhile, Press Herald photographers took advantage of our lengthening days to look for beautiful light.
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PublishedFebruary 22, 2021
In photos: A winter wonderland just outside your door
It’s February, it’s cold, we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic (as if you could forget) and that spells cabin fever. So here are some photos to remind you of the many ways that Maine is a perfect place to be living through this. It’s a winter wonderland just outside your door.
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PublishedFebruary 8, 2021
In photos: Mittens and Mainers, what’s not to love?
Warm woolen mittens are one of our favorite things, and they got special attention when Sen. Bernie Sanders wore them, sitting in a folding chair looking grumpy, at President Biden’s inauguration. Sanders’ mien and mittens, in the photo by photographer Brendan Smialowski, went viral, making the Twitter universe, and many others, happy for many cold winter days. The mittens were famously given to Sanders by Vermonter Jen Ellis, a former Mainer. Ellis learned to sew at Mahoney Middle School in South Portland, taught by home economics teacher Jeannette Collett. Here are a few Mainers with their mittens, including Collett, who is wearing her very own pair of Jen Ellis mittens.
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PublishedOctober 26, 2020
Consider the lowly gull: A photo essay
Gulls are often maligned as “rats of the sky,” but is that assessment warranted? Isn’t there beauty in their plaintive calls? Aren’t they as evocative of the coast as salt air, foghorns, bell buoys, lobster boats and lighthouses?
Or are they simply too common, too messy and too pushy to deserve our admiration?
Gulls, love them or hate them, are smart, fascinating, even beautiful, as our gallery shows. Just don’t call them seagulls. Birders will tell you there is no such animal. -
PublishedJuly 6, 2020
During coronavirus, backyard birding takes flight in Maine
Socially distanced telecommuters are discovering a new world just beyond their walls.
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PublishedJune 15, 2020
Pandemic complicates life on Peaks Island for photographer, family
Beginning in March, my wife and I were ships in the night – when she was working, I was home.