The national food media has been giving little Portland, ME, a lot of attention lately, and for good reason! First, Bon Appetit’s October issue named Portland this year’s  “Foodiest Small Town in America.” And yesterday, the New York Times ran a long, photo-laden piece starting on the front page of the Dining & Wine section called “In Portland’s Restaurants, A Down East Banquet” that focuses on the collective nature of the burgeoning food scene here. As many of you already know, I was the lucky photographer who took the images for this article.

I spent two days with the reporter, Julia Moskin, visiting restaurants, markets and shops. We had a jam-packed schedule that usually allowed for about 30 minutes in each locale. This was an excellent test of my ability to get high-quality images in a short time period while working with available props and light. I sent in dozens of images and while the Times managed to run a large number (15 in the online slideshow, another 5 embedded in the online story, and 12 in the print version), there are, of course, some other images I really like that weren’t included. I thought I’d share some of those with you here. Hope you enjoy them!

(Full disclosure: the preponderance of Scratch Baking Co. images is because a) I had a lot of time there with unfettered access (the owners are my friends as I live a block away and worked there for a spell) and b) because I’m addicted to their bread and bagels!)